


I'm Not Supposed to Love You

by ShowerFresh_DIOderant



Series: I'm not supposed to love you [1]
Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Hacking, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Revenant Being Revenant (Apex Legends), Robot Feels, Robot Sex, Robot/Human Relationships, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Smut, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:42:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 58,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23655550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShowerFresh_DIOderant/pseuds/ShowerFresh_DIOderant
Summary: You are a hired gun to find information for your boss. Your mission is to find some dirt on Hammond Robotics. You didn't think that a rogue machine was going to attack the facility right after. You also didn't think he would be coming back to your apartment with you, but here he is. It's funny how things play out sometimes.It's going to be just a bit of a slow burn.
Relationships: Revenant (Apex Legends)/Reader
Series: I'm not supposed to love you [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1823863
Comments: 178
Kudos: 411





	1. Help a skinsuit out

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for your support! I love this murder robot and would love to see more of him! If you enjoyed, leave a like and a comment to keep the fuel on the fire that is my desire to write!!!❤  
> And thanks again!

You smashed into the glass, hearing it splinter and skitter across the large, gray, tile floor. Your arm felt like it was on fire from the gunshot wound you had taken just minutes before being flung through a window. You had trained for this. 

You calmed your breathing to the best of your ability as you dragged yourself behind cover. Easy.

In through the nose… out from the mouth…

Your heart still raced no matter how calm the breathing was. Nothing could be more exhilarating than the thrill of escaping your death. This was it. That big guy with the dark grey , grunt armor was going to take you out unless you did something. 

“Here little kitty… Why don’t you come play?” he growled like a predator to it's prey. Little did he know that the roles were reversed. 

He started on a tangent of how you were putting your nose where it didn’t belong and yadda, yadda. As if you cared. It was a job like everything else.  
Get in. Get the info. Get out. 

Sometimes it gets messy.

He rounded the corner, whipping up his pistol. You, however, were at the ready. Ready and aimed at his head, you fired, cringing at the sounds of meat splashing to the floor. You would say a clean floor, but clearly janitorial is slacking. 

You had a slight limp as you had injured your leg in the window incident, but other than some good cuts and bruises, you were fine as far as you could tell.  
It surprised you to say the least. You weren't expecting the place to be so over guarded, but then again, it was Hammond Robotics, so you really shouldn’t have been so shocked. 

It was a simple job given by your boss, you call him Frederick since he doesn’t give anyone a name. He’s like pimp with hoes, but instead he’s one dude that pimps out highly trained killers or hackers for coin. It’s a good industry and there’s no regrets in joining.  
Really thinking about it, these injuries are probably the worst you’ve ever had on a mission. You also thought that this better be worth all of the trouble it was, holding up a Usb drive containing the information. 

Holstering your pistol, you made your way down the grass to see an interesting sigh indeed. Something was walking right up to the front door, guards in that area were already alarmed from your own little fit, so this couldn’t possibly end well for who or whatever that was. 

Screams. 

The men were falling like flies, not taking much to crumple to their knees after their neck broke or they took a bullet straight to the head. 

“Who is that?” You wondered out loud as you broke into a run towards the commotion.

The bodies… 

The bodies were beginning to pile up and that red machine just kept shooting and stabbing his way through them and into the building. 

“Wait….” 

The bullet sounds stopped. It was quiet. It was way too quiet. Ducking behind the rock, you dodged some shrapnel from a massive explosion, the building collapsing. 

“What in the fuck!!!?” You shouted into your arms, protecting your face from the searing, hot winds. You couldn’t believe it. That fucker was so scary, they didn’t even hesitate to blow that fucker up. You had to see this shit for yourself.

You waited, your legs shaking at the thought of even going near this thing. Surprisingly, you didn’t even have to wait very long, watching him stride confidently out of the fire as if it were nothing. The cowl he wore before was burnt to almost nothing while his bags and gear were also destroyed, but you didn’t think that made him any less dangerous. Your fingers trembled as you reached for your pistol, not like it did any good for the other helpless victims that held heavy assault rifles. 

He was heading right for you.

What were you going to do with your injuries? Run? That’s silly. You wanted to meet him? Here’s your shot. Hopefully he accepts diplomacy. As he neared, you kicked your leg out from behind the rock, kicking a stone into view. You heard the grinding of metal stop suddenly and the sound of a gun clicking. 

“Easy, friend! I’m not with them! I’m really hoping you don’t kill me!” you laughed. It was probably the godly amount of adrenaline that coursed through your veins like fire. Not that it would save you if you attempted to run or anything. 

Metal grinding again. He was heading towards you, not saying a word. Your tongue felt dry and your vision blurred from the panic, but you did your best to play calm. Before you know it, there he was standing beside you as you leaned against the rock, putting pressure on your leg. He pointed a pistol at you, but to your relief, didn’t shoot yet. 

“Who are you…? Why are you here?” 

He spoke in a deep gravely voice. It was utterly terrifying, but you couldn’t help but love it. 

“I’m on a job. An… an info broker sent me to collect.” You pulled out your usb file that you carried with you. “I certainly collected.”

He lowered the pistol, thankfully not interested in killing you now, it seemed. 

“What is that? Who are you taking the information to?”

He holstered the pistol and waited for your answer, hands at his sides, but poised to strike if you gave him any sort of reason to. 

“I cannot tell you who the broker is, sadly. If I tell you, he’ll kill me himself, but I can tell you that he is not connected to Hammond if that makes you feel any better. As I can see, you clearly don’t like those guys and they really don’t like you.”

He put his hand on his gun again and you realized that he really wanted to know about the file, not so much your boss.

“This! This right here is some dirt on the company. Just simple things like fraudulence, selling weapons, and also stuff on their simulacrum projects. This shit is supposed to fuck Hammond up. If I get this information to the right people, then we can finally bring those arrogant fucks down.”

His hand slid from the gun, but then towards you, holding it out to you as if he wanted you to give him something. The USB. 

“Wait… if you take this from me, im as good as dead…”

It was true. Missions like these were the more important ones where failure is not an option. If you don’t die in the field and return empty handed, you will be shot as an example to the others.

“I don’t employ failures,” as your good boss, Frederick, says.

“Give it to me or you die here.”  
You hand it over, feeling the cold metal of his fingers brush your own. 

“Cant you just scan it or something so that I can take it back to him. I really don’t want to die over a stupid fucking file. Imagine that on my gravestone, if I even get one! ‘here lies the fuckhead who didn’t bring back my USB.’ That sounds pretty fucked up don’t you think!?” 

He just stared at you, he had no real way of making expressions as his face was just a metal and still. He had lips, which seemed pretty interesting, but upon closer inspection, they would never part since they were attached. The top of his face was like a white skull mask, while his bottom lip and jaw were a crimson red, almost matching the slightly brighter cowl that wrapped around his head slightly, since it was singed and damn near falling off of him. His eyes were orange but depending on how he looked at you they changed from darker to brighter, sometimes even flashing red. 

“I couldn’t care less if you died. Your just like the others, just a piece of meat.”

You leaned your head against the rock, wincing in pain as your leg shifted. 

“Well you are hurting this piece of meat’s feelings. I really wish that you could just help me out. I mean… I could even help you. I got a lot of connections and if you want Hammond taken down, trust me, there are plenty of others that would be willing to provide support.” 

He started to walk away, but you of course shouted for him to stop.

“Wait! Please, goddamn it! What in the fuck do you want from me!?”

He turned, tilting his head as if he was giving you some kind of cocky smirk.

“I don’t want anything from you, skinbag. All I want is to see all of you suffer. Don’t care who they are.”

You were at your wit’s end, begging a fucking murder robot for your life…

“I’ll fix your nasty hood for you.”

His head tilted up in surprise, but shook a bit in disgust. 

“Insults are going to get you nowhe-“

“I can give you a comfortable place to stay while you are out on your murder sprees and ill fix your crispy ass hood. Is that a good enough deal for you? You cant possibly be staying in some ritzy ass hotel looking like that. I even have experience in maintenance if you need any. Yes?”

He stood there for a good minute, as if he were thinking, weighing his options with his big, dumb programming. He only looked up when he saw you shift and try to get more comfortable for your leg. 

He grunted angrily, but started walking your way, orange eyes narrowing and turning to a bright red. 

“Here! Here’s a syringe. Take it and lead me to where ever you are staying.” He tossed down the medical equipment and turned away from you. “I don’t give a damn about you, I’m doing this for myself…”  
He crossed his arms and waited for you to fix your leg.

“Believe me, buddy, I got that message loud and clear.”

...

Your humble abode was actually not bad. It was decent sized, having three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a nice kitchen-dining room area. It was in the city, close to the top of the building, with lots of windows and natural light, hence whwy you enjoyed keeping a good few potted plants by the windows as well as a small herb garden. 

As soon as you got back, you made some tea and took a look at your newly acquired friend’s cowl. You held your hand out to him as he had done to you, motioning for him to take if off and give it to you so you could examine it. 

He growled, but handed it over without hesitation, allowing you to assess the damage and instantly decide what you already knew, that you were going to have to make a new one. What you really needed to know was what the material was so that you could go purchase some. 

“Well?” he grumbled impatiently as if you hadn’t only been holding it for a minute. 

“I hate to break it to you buddy, but you are gonna need a new one. I can make this easy, your cute little white circle and all. You just gotta give me some time to get ahold of some red fabric. I’ve got a long black scarf If you wanna rock that for now, until I get some. Its about the same size and similar material. If I really think about it, its more like a sash than a scarf, but if I’m honest, I don’t really know what I’m talking about.”  
He huffed.

“Clearly. Yet you still continue to talk… continuously.”

Excellent. He's a comedian. 

You set down the cowl and examine the rest of him, seeing that some of the red belts on his body were singed and some wiring appeared to be damaged but nothing that seemed to affect him too much. 

“Are you having any difficulty moving anything? Like, flex your fingers and move around a bit so that I can see if that boom didn’t mess anything up.”

He was suprisingly quick to cooperate, flexing his fingers, moving his arms, legs, rolling his neck. The fingers, though, was what caught your eye.

“Somethings not right, let me see.”

You reached out to grab his cold, metal hand and you felt it tense in your own. All awkwardness aside, you felt that the pinky and ring finger were not functioning properly.  
“Flex these fingers again…” He did and there it was.  
The ring finger wasn’t moving at all and the pinky had a twitch to it.

“Didn’t notice.” He grumbled as he watched you get to work. You happened to have some experience in robotics as your father worked in the field. It was a simple wiring issue as well as something becoming dislocated. 

“How do you know how to fix that… you sure you aren’t with Hammond? It’d be a shame to kill you since you’ve been so useful to me…”  
That’s fair, you figured he’d ask, so you happily explained and once you were done with your tragic story about your lovely parents, you were finished, closing up his hand and telling him to try it out.  
He appeared satisfied, a pleasant hum escaping the sound box in his face while he moved his fingers.

“Glad to help. Now, if you could do me the best of favors and stay here, while I go get your fabric and give my boss the USB, I would be even more indebted to you, though I know there really isn’t any other way I could be more indebted to you because I mean, not killing me is a pretty substantial thing, you know? You owe someone your life, there’s really no way to pay that back unless you actually die. Its kinda funny…”

He didn’t look very pleased listening to your rant and you took his lowered head and irritated aura was a ‘shut up and leave.’ How could you refuse if so meant killing you? You wouldn’t be refusing him anytime soon.


	2. His first sleepover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You and your new friend are enjoying your first morning as roommates.

“You’re late. I expected you back hours ago. Where have you been? You know that with the mission, there are no errands in between. You get what I asked of you and then you come back. If you cant follow simple orders, how am I to trust you with tasks of this level of importance?”

You listened obediently and handed him the drive.   
“I ran into some… complications. It wont happen again if I can help it. I promise.”  
He scoffed. 

“Empty promises mean nothing to me. I expect better results from you.” 

It frustrated you to no end that he seemed to never think you could do a good enough job even though you got what he needed. All you could do was to tell yourself not to dwell on it and move forward. After all, Frederick was cool, but if you upset him in any way, you were risking more than just a job. The scary part was that he could get away with it too. 

What are you going to do if he threatens your life?  
‘Yeah my hitmen pimp threatened to kill me… yeah, I’ve killed before, what’s it to ya? Broken into private property? Sure! Oh and caused massive collateral damage? Hecken yeah!’   
No. There is no going to any police or law enforcement   
of any kind or you go down the shitter too.

“My apologies, sir. I will show you that I can do better or give my life trying.”

He turned to you with a grin.  
“Now that is the enthusiasm I like to hear. Now, get out. I have more things to do and you have your leave.”

You were very much happy to do just that, looking down at your account and watching the credits pour in. You didn’t like killing, or hacking, or breaking into buildings, or working with major danger robots to take down an entire corporation… however, it did pay up. 

You used to be poor, living on bread, butter, and pasta. Those good old days where you dug through the couch for change when you ran out of milk were long gone.   
The day you saved an informant’s life by blowing a man’s brains out for the first time was a day you will never forget as it changed your life for, hopefully, the better. You were a good shot and good with tech. Couldn’t ask for a better hitman… or maybe you could. You didn’t want to sound too arrogant, though you totally thought you were the best. 

That robot was in your apartment, by the way, and you were going to have to fix his stupid hat. You were always having to walk on eggshells it seemed. Piss off your boss? He’ll kill you. Piss off the robot in your room? He’ll kill you. 

Winning was just never an option for you here. 

Riding the elevator felt longer than usual…. Was it always this long of a wait? Or were you just dreading to return to the room in which he was probably crawling around like some weirdo. Though, the extra time made you think of how beautiful the view was. You lived here for so long and really didn’t take the time to look out and see how high up you really were. Just goes to show how well this pays. 

“You were out a while…” 

And there he was, sitting on your couch, watching your television and staring at you like some angry cat. 

“Sorry for the wait, I was getting chewed out for being a couple hours late and then had my life threatened. How about you, how was your day so far? Aside from the giant explosion you were just in, because I don’t think anything in this room is going to be anything near as exciting as that was.”

He just tilted his head and pulled a bit at the black sash he decided to wear in favor of the red, crispy cowl. 

“Its boring.”

You huffed, knowing that he didn’t see any of your games or anything to keep his attention, unless he just liked staring at plants and admiring the view.

“It’s not boring here; you just don’t know how to have fun.”

He crossed his arms and watched you sit down at your sewing machine with all of your goodies, ready to fix him up a new red, murder sash. It was a soft, red material that was as close as you could possibly get to the real thing. If anything, you figured that it was the same material, but the older one was so worn and so over used that it was just courser.

He watched you like a hawk as you put it together, adding his little white circle emblem he wore on the last one. It didn’t take long at all to finish and you were handing it over to him.

“Well, go try it on! There’s a mirror in the bathroom if you need to use it. I’m sure you know this already since you had plenty of time while I was gone to look around.”

He took it roughly from your hands and rushed away to your restroom, leaving you to only shake your head and sigh at how grumpy and overdramatic he was. I mean, at least a “Thank you” would have been nice, but that is clearly too much to ask of someone as ‘great and powerful’ as he.

He came out looking wonderful in your humblest opinion. Thank you granny for all of those lessons in the art of the needle. May the gods bless her soul or whatever she is now. Your best guess would be a demon since you knew for a fact that woman was insane.

“Well? What do you think?”

He pulled at it a little, silently of course, but you felt he was satisfied with the job… or so you thought.

“It could have been done better by an ape, but it’s what   
I have, so I’ll take it.”

You just stared incredulously as if you hadn’t jumped through enough hoops to give a lion a stroke. The only word you could drop from your dumbfounded mouth was a simple…

“Shit”

His shoulders loosened a little, you noticed. The murder robot relaxing? He probably thought it was funny, after all, doesn’t he enjoy the suffering of the poor little skin bag? Well whatever gets you your kicks.

“What do you do for fun in this dump?”

You flipped him the bird before jumping over the back of your couch, grabbing your remote and clicking on your pretty decently sized television. It was flat, too. Its probably flatter than your phone. You liked the flat. 

“Turn on the game station, boi.”  
You grabbed your controllers from the drawer beside you, turning on your console and hooking you up to your personal heaven.

“This is how I have fun when I’m not out there, you know, trying not to die.”

He didn’t seem to like that idea since he turned into a shadow thing and slinked quickly into one of the guest bedrooms and slammed the door. Touchy. Maybe it was the opposite of touchy? Nah, that’s like physical touchy. You were talking about emotional touchy. Yes. Touch. 

Your heart raced as you did your best to shoot the zombies and make it to the next level. Since your new robot friend didn’t want to play with you, you played online and ended up being the worst shot in the crew. It was a sad shame, but here in this world, you were a sad normie when it came to games and that frustrated you to no end. You just wanted to be good, goddamn it. You wanted to carry your team to victory with a middle finger in the air and bragging rights. Missing all of these shots however, was not the right direction in acquiring such things.   
You watched your screen in utter disappointment as the zombie above you was eating your poor body. 

“Damn.”

After a couple more hours of this delightful torment, you clicked off your console and went to bed, changing into your sweatpants and tank, tossing your bloody clothes from earlier into the bloody clothes bin. You thought about that so casually as if that were normal. 

Well it was normal. Your normal. 

Goodnight, crazy day. Hopefully, the next one wouldn’t try to kill you too. That’s all a poor soul like you could ever hope for.

…

You awoke to a bright and early sky, birds calling below, as well as the bustling crowds of people and cars.   
How do you want to spend your morning?

Eating cereal, poptarts, and downing a half a half gallon of orange juice. 

Was it going to hurt your stomach? 

Hell yeah, but do you know what its good for?

Its good for your soul.

You went for a bite of said poptart when you heard the news station buzz onto your television automatically, speaking about a murder at a nearby facility involving many other civilian casualties as well as mass panic. They were dressed in red and moved with inhuman speed, its proportions confirmed it as non human. 

Well, then…

You took a bite of your poptart anyway, knowing exactly who the murderer was and if you were correct in assuming he had returned, then you knew exactly where he was as well. That’s not something you can say everyday. 

Choosing to wait to drink your orange juice in favor of checking on your friend, you went to the bedroom door of his choice and knocked rather hesitantly. No answer. You knock again. No answer. 

“You in there?”

His voice sent chills up your spine as you felt someone standing behind you. He had warmth about him that radiated off and brushed against your slightly cooler skin. It made every hair on your body stand up. You couldn’t look weak to him, though. That makes it too easy.

“What do you want? Why are you knocking on my door?”

You turned to face him, looking into those bright orange eyes, or whatever they were. 

“Came to check on you. Saw that pretty, red painting on the news. You really should let me know about when you go out so that I can at least assist you with security footage or something. If you lead them back here, we’re both fucked.”

He only lifted his shoulders pathetically in some attempt at a shrug and stalked into your kitchen. He looked around and then down at your bowl of cereal. He stared at it for an uncomfortably long amount of time and so in order to save it from certain death and room temperature, also certain death, you sat down to start eating. 

“That’s all you’re going to eat? No wonder you’re so pathetic on the field.”

Scoff. “Dude, this is our first sleepover, so you don’t know anything about my diet and this is my week off. Give me a break. I’m a grown woman and I’ll eat whatever the hecken heck I want.”

His eyes glowed red and the metal of his arms simmered with fire.  
“If you say that again, I will kill you with my bare hands. Do you understand me, skinsuit?”

Well fuck me.

“Message loud and clear, Boss number two.”

Hoping to drop the conversation, you laid into your cereal, shoving a spoonful into your mouth. Taking the hint, he trekked to your couch and watched the news rant on about his kill, showing the victim’s face and speaking about their position in Hammond Robotics. You had a feeling that if you asked him anything about who these targets were, he would threaten you again, so you would wait until he was a little more comfortable with sharing before dropping any questions that pry too much. 

You could tell by watching him that he seemed odd. He wasn’t just some normal robot. He acted very human. Too human. He gasped, he growled, he sighed… no normal robot would feel the need to make sounds such as those, considering that they didn’t need to breathe. This one though… he was definitely different. That information that you collected…

Simulacrum. 

You had heard of them before and knew that Hammond dabbled in such things, but it never came to you that he could be one of those and that was why he was so dead set on bringing them down. 

You watched him like a hawk, not realizing really that you were staring hard enough to burn a hole into the side of his face, but now you could see a bit of what was happening. You could see why he was so fucking angry… and you sympathized with it. He used to be human and now he was this… thing…

Anyone would be angry. How could he not have the right to be? Maybe you could try to be a little kinder as hard as that may be. He was a major asshole and anyone would agree that they would rather take their chances in the apex games than invite this mad murder robot into their home, but you were not just anyone. You got that good ol’ insanity from your lovely old granny. You enjoyed every second. You enjoyed the thrill of him being here or even just him existing. It was exciting to say the least.

“Hey, meat bag, you say you can hack… right?”

You snapped out of your trance. 

“Um, yes. I’m not the best, but I’m decent. What do you need?”

He gripped the arm of your nice couch, tearing into the material, making you flinch and whine. Just to clarify, it wasn’t because you were scared. No. He was tearing your expensive couch with his dumb metal fingers.

“I need names… I NEED THEIR NAMES…. I’ll finish them… drop them off on their family’s doorstep for their children to find… They are going to pay…”

You stood from the table, looking at your pad and seeing your boss’s contact. You knew that he could give you the names that … he needed.

“What is your name?”

His head shot up like dear noticing a car, but instead of being in headlights, it looked very scary and poised to strike at you.

“You want to run that by me again?”

You came closer, leaning against the back of the couch and once again asked him about his name. Told him that he had never given you a name and since he really isn’t in any databases, there wasn’t a way to find it. 

He was quiet, staring hard at you, seeming to be debating with himself. You literally had just told yourself that you wouldn’t pry, but it’s a name, its only fair that you both introduce each other if you’re both going to be under the same roof for god knows how long.

“They call me The Revenant. I don’t remember my real name. I have so many that I don’t know what’s real and what’s not.”

Well that was a lot more than you thought he was going to ever tell you, but that’s not on your mind right now. All you can seem to think about is how cool that name is. 

“My name is (y/n), though it is not nearly as cool. Revenant... that is literally the coolest name I’ve ever heard and trust me, I’ve heard some crazy ass names.”  
He just watched he TV, not seeming to care, but did offer up a kind, “Whatever,” and went back to watching the channel.

“Don’t you worry, buddy. Imma get you those names. Give me a couple days at the least though . I need a break from yesterday. My arm and leg still don’t feel right.”

…

One thing you liked about Revenant was that he was a relatively quiet roommate. He did like to get up under your skin, occasionally get up close and personal. It was almost as if he thrived on making people uncomfortable.

“What’s wrong, human? You scared? It would be so easy just to tear your spine from your soft flesh…” his hands sharpened into claws and reached out to scrape gently at your skin.

Shaking your head, all you could feel was disappointment at such a threat. “Somebody is watching too much of the Predator movie.” 

He sighed, his hands returning to normal. “Its an old film, a classic….”

You lean against your small work bench, “Yeah, an ancient film…”

He just stood there, watching you work, but his shoulders shook and then lifted his head a little. It was an odd moment. It reminded you of someone trying not to laugh. 

“It doesn’t matter how old it is if it’s good.” 

You shrugged. 

“Cake is good, sure. Who wants it after a week of sitting on your shelf? No takers?” 

He got quiet; Like, awkward quiet. He stood there for as good five minutes watching you and then just left. Scuttled away to his room like the little scorpion he was. 

God…. He was really starting to grow on you. Like those vines that grow up the sides of trees and suffocate them. Yeah. Like that. 

What’s worse? You liked it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is where you get to help with the next murder spree!


	3. I wont pity you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You got him some names and were ready to help him get his revenge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I appreciate all of your support!!! All of your likes and comments are amazing!!!

“So, uh… Hey, Rev? I can call you Rev right? That’s cool? Uh… I got you some names. Just some, alright? The boss isn’t too happy about me taking this upon myself to go after these dudes, but he said he’d allow it for now. I didn’t go into any detail about who you were or what you were or why. I just told him they needed to die and he seemed upset, but didn’t really care all that much.” 

You waited In front of his bedroom, that he so rightfully claimed as his own. You’ve never seen it since he moved in, since he kept it closed and locked for all times aside from opening it to just a crack to speak to you. 

“Are you in there, buddy? Please don’t be behind me again. You do it all the time and it’s not even a worthy jump scare any more.” 

You turned around, but to your surprise, he wasn’t there. 

You weren't really all that shocked, he was probably out. Okay, you were shocked because you asked him politely to inform you of these cute little excursions, if not to help, at least so that you were prepared to wake up to another massacre on the television. 

“Where are you, you big dummy?” 

You leaned to put more pressure on your other leg, but instantly moved back since your leg was still healing. 

All this excitement about having him here was doing a great job distracting you from the pain in your leg which was odd considering that your arm has been shot and didn’t feel nearly as bad. There was no way that a couple cuts or pulling a muscle was anything equivalent to being shot. You weren’t a doctor by any means, but your brain just couldn’t fathom that being right. 

Maybe you needed to go get some medical help. It probably wasn’t necessary and was probably dangerous, but if your leg kept on like this, then it was going to make missions very difficult for you. 

“What are you doing?”

Oh, goodie! He was back… or maybe he never left? He was probably watching you like some kind of spider on your ceiling. Doubt crossed your mind when you remembered mentioning the names. He would have jumped down on top of you begging for them.

You could see him begging for other things… 

Ok. Ew. Why would you think that? Don’t think things like that! He’s an asshole! He’s probably not even equipped with that kind attachment, not that it was any of your business. Ick. With everything he’s gone through, there’s no way that anything like that is on his mind at all. 

Its still an interesting topic to you. How his butter on dick voice would sound if it was begging you to cum, talking sweet in your ear about how beautiful you were, or how easily he could tear you apart. Wait. He’s said that last one already, you know what that would sound like at least, maybe not in a sexual sense. He definitely told you he could pull your soft fleshy body apart and empty out your insides so easily, like cracking open an egg. You were not going to lie, you found that one utterly hilarious and you wrote that down to say to some poor soul in the future. Some poor businessman’s last words he’s ever gonna hear are going to compare his body to an egg being cracked on a kitchen counter. 

Its brilliant. 

“I am standing in front of your door.”

Damn. That sounded creepy. 

“Is there a good reason you’re standing in front of my door?”

You handed him a tablet that contained the files of Hammond workers. There were five names that he gave you so far. Three of those men headed the department that worked with the simulacrum projects that were apparently, as researched by yourself, were still being funded today. You figured he would want those three the most out off every name on that roster. You wanted to just say fuck it and give Rev the whole list. Your boss said five, though, so you gave him five.  
His metal fingers seemed to tense like he was going to crush the tablet. 

“Be careful with that. You break that, we lose those names until I can go back to ‘the office.’” 

He handed it back to you quickly as if he was definitely going to break it if he held it any longer.

“I just want to kill something. Break something. Anything! Those fucking meatbags are dead. I cant wait to look into their eyes as their life slips away into nothing, just like they are. THEY ARE NOTHING!” 

You held your hands up in some pathetic attempt to wordlessly inform him you mean him no harm as you voiced your concern over his outburst.

“It’s ok, buddy, we are going to get em’. You can calm down, we got this.”

His head snapped to you, rage seemingly endless as he leaned up and towered over you. 

“Shut up. I wont hesitate to kill you, you worthless skin suit. The only reason I’ve been tolerating you is because you have a use to me. Fucking pathetic. You only gave me five names! Five names isn’t even scratching the surface!”

You may owe him your life, but you were not backing down here. This was your house and he was not going to throw a robot temper tantrum here.

“That’s all he would give me! You need to calm down before the rest of the building hears you! We are not completely alone here and you are making it especially obvious to my neighbors! If I’m so useful to you, I doubt you’re going to kill me over a little argument.”

He pushed you against the wall beside his door, his cold metal hand gripping your jaw and forcing you to look into those bright red eyes of his. His metal body was so close to pressing against yours, his other hand holding your shoulder, holding you to the wall. The hand on your face squeezed dangerously tight, but all you could think about were how they felt brushing against your fingers as he took the USB from you. 

“I will kill you right here and now. I don’t have a problem with it.” 

To drive that point further, his hand that held your shoulder also began to squeeze, becoming sharp and drawing blood. 

“I don’t need you.”

You reached up and grabbed his arm, the one that was currently holding your face, with a force that made your knuckles white. It was smooth, yet scratched up, and a beautiful red. That was something you liked about his model. It was such a beautiful red color.

How crazy were you to think about how beautiful he was as he threatened to kill you? You couldn’t stop staring at his upper, white lip that had small slits as to where his voice came out or how his bottom lip looked so full and soft, yet you knew that it would be cold and hard to the touch.

“If you want those names quicker, you won’t. You were an assassin at one time, right? You and I both know that if you just went out and killed everyone in one night, people would notice. You would be such an enormous threat, that you would be seriously hunted by more than just Hammond and some law enforcement getting fat, watching security cameras.”

He instantly threw you to the floor. He did nothing else, but watch you scramble back to a chair and just lean against it, the adrenaline leaving your body and making you too weak to stand.

“How do you know that? You said I’m not in a database. I never told you what I was.”  
You wanted to come back with some snarky remark, but kept it to yourself. You jumped into that pit when you should have stayed quiet. 

“It’s all about how you move. There’s no way you weren’t at one time.”  
He growled and his fist hit your wall, entering as if he were merely hitting a cracker.

“How did you know what I WAS?”  
You said nothing. You felt terrible. Bringing this topic up was not in the plan to speak to him about names, nor was being thrown around or yelled at.

“The Hammond intel I got. I looked at it. Why else would you be so thirsty for revenge? There’s a reason for it. That’s why you’re hunting them… because they hurt you.”

He got quiet. He had a tendency to do that when he wasn’t being a dick.

“You pity me, don’t you?… fucking human…”

You touched your face where he grabbed you, having a feeling there was going to be a bad bruise. You hoped to hell you wouldn’t be getting a call from any friends. They were going to think you had some abusive husband or something. That would suck. 

“God, that hurt… You need to be more gentle. I’m delicate.”

He stalked towards you again, filling your veins with enough adrenaline that you could probably stand up now if you wanted. 

“Answer me, NOW! Do you pity me, meat sack?”

Yeah. In a way, you did. You felt for him. He was suffering whether he wanted to admit it or not and he showed with his behavior. He struck you as someone who didn’t care about their own life. All he cared about was making the people who did this to him pay. You see that and all of the misery that swirl in those orbs of light that were his eyes and what could you not pity. 

You wouldn’t tell him that though. 

As frightening as he was, you respected him. You respected him enough to know that he didn’t need pity, much less yours. You wouldn’t show him pity. You would do your best to help him get what he desires so he can finally be satisfied. After everything is said and done, you will never find peace, so why cant you help him find his?

“No.” you said with a shaky breath.

“I don’t pity you. I want to help you.”

He loomed over you for a bit, staring down at you as you stared back up, defiantly, at him. You were on the ground, but that didn’t necessarily make you beat. Maybe he caught that, because instead of continuing to threaten you, he looked down at the floor at your tablet, picked it up, and quietly went into his room, shutting the door. 

That could have gone better.

You were so stressed out from the encounter and had hurt your leg again, so you didn’t get up. You just passed out against the chair you were leaned against, hoping that when you woke, he’d be a bit better   
behaved. 

….

Eyes open and here we go for another adventure. It was getting dark outside, the sun going down with the most beautiful oranges and purples. Well, time to get up and get changed so we can get something to eat. You were thinking Chinese take-out sounded amazing at this moment… until you moved to actually complete the motion of getting up of course. 

“Ow, Fuck, son of a bitch!” 

Your leg refused to cooperate and tried to lean on your arm for support, but it was the arm that Rev so graciously carved up, so you were sent back with a small splash into your own blood. Shit. That was quite a bit of blood. But lucky for you, it wasn’t nearly as much as you thought and your wounds weren’t nearly enough to kill you. There was a Medkit in your room, but you were hurting too much to even bother getting up to get it. 

You didn’t have anyone else you could call to come over and check out your bloody self without freaking out and saying, “OH, NO! You’re bleeding everywhere! You need to go to the hospital! I’m calling an ambulance! Oh my god!”

Nobody except Rev and he probably wasn’t going to help since he was the one who had done it. Trying your best to drag your body to your room down the hall would be a drag and as much as you needed that medkit, the effort really wasn’t worth it. You would be in a whole lot more pain and make a mess on the pristine, white carpet. As if you were going to drag your bloody body across those expensive carpets. No. You would rather die.

You felt your eyes threatening to close again. Uh, oh. Blood loss? You weren’t for sure, but the thought of waking up and blacking out was pretty scary. It was scary enough that you weren’t even thinking anymore. 

“Rev… Rev… help…”

You called out to him, not even sure if you were loud enough for him to hear, but you hoped it was enough, cuz you were out again, slipping into the black abyss that could have very well been death, but who knows?  
Hey! Death was pretty warm… and shaky, well more like rocking or being picked up. That’s weird…

…

Eyes open again, chica! Its dark outside and you suddenly didn’t feel nearly as shitty as you did earlier. All you could see was the ceiling of your bedroom and the night sky outside of your glass wall. Oh don’t worry, you! No one could see inside, but you could see outside. Fancy.

You checked your arm and saw that it had been expertly bandaged and your leg was also wrapped up. You felt at your face and it felt moist, like some gel or something was applied to it, which made sense considering that you had a bruise gel in your kit. You were absolutely positive though, that you did not apply any of this goodness. 

The Revenant actually helped you? The thought made you laugh out loud. 

“Man, I could sure use some of that Chinese food about now. Damn.”

Your stomach growled in agreement, but was soon forgotten when you got that familiar feeling of being watched. He was in here somewhere and you knew it in your bones. You’d play his game and ignore him.   
Pulling yourself up, proved to be difficult, even though you feel as if you just went to see a masseuse. Injuries are injuries after all and no matter how many medkits you find, you will still feel miserable after. It takes some time to heal completely and that’s just a fact from a young assassin hoe that does not have a doctorate in medical. Hello. 

His presence in the room choked you, becoming harder and harder to ignore. You kept telling yourself not to look up, don’t look up, but of course, like a fool, you looked up. Do you have any regrets? Many. This one, however, takes the cake from all of the regrets you’ve ever had and you’ve done some pretty fucked up stuff. 

He was on your ceiling, gripping it tightly with those metal fingers, his feet seeming to stick with little effort and he stared directly at you with bright yellow eyes. 

You couldn’t help the gasp that pulled in your lungs, it was a knee jerk reaction to seeing a robot on your ceiling that wasn’t supposed to be there. 

A chuckle and the sound of grinding metal calmed your nerves as he climbed down the wall like your boy, spiderman. “You’re awake, huh? Thought you were gonna die on me over those little wounds.”  
Mean.

“Well pour salt in my bacon and rub it in. Shit. I was still injured from our last encounter. Didn’t give me much of a fighting chance.”

He only continued to grumble out a laugh and crossed his arms over his gray chest. The red straps on his frame were fixed as well as some scratches buffed out. He looked good.

“You go through a car wash, buddy? You look fantastic.”

He just mumbled for you to shut up and stop talking nonsense.

“So any particular reason the boogie man decided to help me? You don’t have to answer, I’m just very curious.”

He leaned back against the wall and looked out your window, seeing the other tall buildings around your own as well as the beautiful night sky. There weren’t many stars out, if any, because you lived in the city. Wait! There’s one! No… nope, nevermind. That’s a plane.

“I need you alive so that you can hack the security cameras in the area. They have auto turrets in that area and I need those shut down as well.”

Your heart sunk into your stomach like a stone into a lake. Fuck me.

“Am i… uh… going to have to go with you?”  
His head tilted towards you and here come the intimidation tactics after asking nicely with no questions asked didn’t work immediately. 

“You owe me your life, skin suit. You’re going to do what I say, or you wont be useful to me anymore. Do you know what happens when you’re not useful to me anymore?” his voice was low, gravely and slow, emphasizing the “anymore.”

He moved over you quickly, straddling you, his face close to your ear.

“You die. You’ll die just like everyone else and no one will be there to save you. You will die alone and I’ll savor it. I’ll record it and watch it over and over…”

Your heart thudded in your chest, but not because he was threatening to kill you. No. You were flustered because this handsome… ew, wait no… this robot was on top of you in a very risqué way and whispering in your ear. Ick. No. he wasn’t handsome. Cool? Hell yeah, he was cool. Not. Handsome. 

At least that’s what you’re telling yourself for your own pride’s sake, your heart says something different like… damn… he really showed up for leg day, and why do I want to kiss those fake ass lips, and why do I want you to whisper in my ear some more?  
You had some weird ass thoughts. 

“O-okay, yeah, imma go. I’ll totes go with you, but imma need to you get off me, please? That would be so thoughtful of you.”

He obliged, although rather hesitantly. If you weren’t so busy trying to deny any sort of attraction you had to this Simulacrum, you’d probably be thinking that he liked being on top of you with how he lingered so close to your face in a way that felt like he was trying to be intimidating, but failing miserably and seeming more erotic. 

“Get ready. Take some painkillers. I’ve updated some locations on your device and found you a safe space to sit, even though that should be your job. I did it only this once since you’re pathetic.” 

What more could you say to that? No? You gently slid out of your bed and tested the floor with a foot. It didn’t hurt nearly as bad, so you chanced standing up and were ultimately surprised that you weren’t on the floor.   
Cool. 

“Damn, you sure you weren’t a doctor before you were a killer, because these are dressed so well!” 

He never responded to your question, but didn’t just leave like he usually does. He waited for you patiently and allowed you to limp your way over to your dresser, where you kept your things like clothes, hard drugs… HAH! Just kidding. You were a good kid and didn’t do drugs, popping three of your best friend, Mr. Pain killer. 

“So You gonna stand there while I get cleaned up?” 

He appeared to have blanked out a moment, but suddenly registered what you said and he crumbled away into smoke and fire. That was literally the coolest ability you had ever seen and you’d seen a lady make portals in the apex games.

….

Washcloth bath? Done. All wrapped up cozy in your black sneaking suit with your armor and goodies? Yes.   
You were ready to party. Lucky for you, it was dark, so the section of window you could open, would hardly be noticed by the quieter crowds below. You fired a grapple and held on for a second, checking any cameras in the vicinity and taking pleasure in shutting them down.

Tali-ho. 

You dropped, gracefully, the ripe of your grapple tightening but instead of jolting you to a stop, you gracefully swung forward and with the force of your drop, propelled forward and you landed on a nearby roof top. 

“Alright, Scorpion, this is Sub-zero. You ready to go?” 

You heard his gruff voice scoff through your coms.

“And you call me ancient. You play Mortal Kombat?” Now it was your turn to scoff. 

“MK68 just came out four months ago. Pffft. Can’t wait til they put out 69.” 

He chuckled into your ear. He laughed! That was the cutest thing you have ever heard! Holy shit! You thought you would never make him laugh , but here he was fucking laughing at a 69 joke. 

“So, you have the three locations marked on the device. Are we going after all three tonight? I don’t think I have the stamina to keep up with that. I’m a squishy, injured human and definitely not anywhere near the caliber of an assassin robot.”

He huffed and explained that he wanted to, but if you were just going to get in his way, then he was going to leave you for dead. He said that last time and you woke up in a bed all bandaged like a good little patient. 

“Sure thing, Rev, ill try to keep up.”

The building was actually pretty close by. It was dark enough that you were obscured from the vision of anyone who happened to be looking out their window, but it was light enough that you could make your way to the next one. Your grapple pulled you to the next rooftop swiftly. The Hammond building was pretty obvious to make out, being very bright and big, attracting as much attention as it can.

“He is in there.”

Revenant’s voice rumbled in your ear as you watched the bright tower ahead of you. It was a good distance away, but still pretty close. You hoped that no one would be able to trace it back to your building, hence why you hacked most of the cameras in the area. 

“Do you have an exact location or is that all you have for me?”

After a few minutes of silence, his voice came back over the comms.

“No. I don’t have an exact location. We are going to have to find him. It wont be hard… I can smell them…”  
That wasn’t creepy in the slightest. Your heart raced in your chest, knowing that you were going in with nothing and had to come out with everything. Normally your boss gave you more achievable goals.

“I haven’t had to find them myself before. This will be fun if I don’t die of course.” 

You plopped down onto your ass and watched your screen, picking through the security cameras and hoping to find the first man on the list. He 6’1” with dark hair and brown eyes. 

Aaaaaand you think you had him in floor 37 sitting tight in a coworker’s office. They were doing some very unpleasant things. God that is disgusting. 

“Rev, I found him. He’s having a bout of coitus on floor thirty seven. I shut down the security cameras in the whole area and I’m watching. If you would like to go ahead, I can guide you to the room he is in. its pretty late, so there are only a few office workers about.”

A satisfying hum rang out over the comms.

“Copy that. I’m going in. Watch my back.”

You gave a quick thumbs up after hearing him land behind you and then sprint by your seated form, jumping from the building and onto the glass of the Hammond tower. His fingers clung to the glass like a fucking frog. It was the neatest thing really. He climbed up the glass like spiderman, not making a single sound. Well…

SHATTER.

He smashed through the glass on floor thirty seven. All cameras were shut down, save for the few you were using to see with and even then, no one can see those recordings because any info that you can see, is erased immediately. Fun tech.

“Nice entrance. Although, flashy. They are down the hall in room fifteen.”  
You peaked through the target’s camera again, seeing that they were shaken, the woman hiding under her desk while the target was holding a shotgun and waiting by the door. 

“He is armed with a shotgun. Be wary.”  
Well, clearly, wary wasn’t his style since he smashed through the door and grabbed him by his throat. You could hear him telling him to beg for his life and did he beg… 

He told Rev that he had children waiting for him at home and that he couldn’t die like this. He told him that he’d pay him. He’d do anything. You knew that it wasn’t going to save him.

Revenant’s hand shot through the man’s chest and ripped out his heart. He dropped him onto the floor and began punching him. He punched him and punched him, his head turning into a red, gory mash. You weren’t sure if he deserved it, but he was a part of this organization, so he was going to have to die.  
You could hear the woman screaming over the camera. 

“Revenant, you are going to need to quiet the woman, she is too loud and attracting the attention of other floors.”

Rev did just that, grabbing the woman by the hair and tugging her head back. He sharpened his hand and sliced her throat, blood gushing and splashing over the floor and glass window. Your heart sank at that. She was just an innocent bystander that was probably coerced into this to get a promotion and had to die for no reason other than to silence her screaming. 

“People are coming, Rev, let’s go. They are on floor sixteen and rising. I am moving to the next location. By the looks of it, there aren’t convenient rooftops nearby. Nearby buildings are not close enough to the tower for me to sit comfortable. I’ll have to go in with you.”

He smashed through the glass and climbed back up to you, looking down at you with red, glowing eyes. His face and chest were covered in blood. 

“Stay outta my way and watch my back.”

You felt your blood rush to your face, your heart thudding hard in your chest.  
He was absolutely beautiful here in the light. He was covered in blood, but yet so beautiful…

“Yes, sir…”


	4. Hurt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one is kinda dark and explores a darker part of Reader's backstory. 
> 
> Warnings for this chapter are child death, PTSD, and a panic attack. 
> 
> There's some mild mild gore. 
> 
> Other than that it's just a bunch of daisies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and kudos keep this beast a-typing!  
> Don't hesitate to leave them and give me motivation, because the crushing desire to please is painful lol
> 
> I love everyone who has supported this fic so far, though it hasn't been out for very long! <3

Two more targets remained. What made this even more fun were the turrets he spoke of. You managed to count ten of them and as much as you had all the experience in the world at hacking security cameras, hacking turrets are a different story. You were going to need some help. 

You pulled out your holo-pad and watched as the building's turret positions came in to view. You weren’t close enough to them to shut them down, but you were able to give the area a quick scan and see where everything was.

“How am I going to get in there anyway? I can’t smash my way through like you can.” 

He looked around for a moment, but seemed confident that things were fine. Revenant’s blood soaked hand reached out to you and grabbed your wrist, pulling you close to him. 

“Grab onto me.” 

You were very hesitant to do such a thing. He could have been planning something insane, like smashing through the glass with you on his back as if that was going to get you through unscathed. You were, obviously by now, not made of metal and you had already made your quota of being thrown through a window this year. 

“I don’t think I can-“ 

He pulled you up and around his shoulders like some kind of back pack, transferring his grip to your legs. 

“Hold on to me or you’re gonna fall to your death. Who knows? I might enjoy that…” 

Aw hell nah.

Your weak baby arms wrapped around his neck, gripping one of the red belts on his chest. He was going to do this regardless, so you thought it better to go ahead and hold on. 

And with that, he jumped. You knew he wasn’t going to make it, but maybe that was the plan. You threw out your grapple and he grabbed onto the cord for you as you both fell, knowing that your arm wouldn’t support his weight as well as your own. 

You really liked your arm. If you lost it, you knew your co workers would definitely call you names like… stumpy… or stumpy McStumperson… you know, that last one wasn’t bad. It kind of made you crack a smile as the cold night air hit your face. 

He gracefully tapped the glass, his fingers sticking. Seeing it close up was pretty cool. You didn’t quite understand the tech behind it, but you didn’t really care to. He could fucking stick to glass like Spiderman! Why did it matter how? 

Then he began to climb, your face pressed into the soft, new material of his red cowl that you made so wonderfully. His body moved beneath you and you were honestly conflicted about how you felt about it.  
Your legs were wrapped around his waist so that he could climb and boy did that supply some sweet friction that made you wonder if you had sunk so low as to be aroused by a blood soaked murder machine. 

Yeah. Yeah you have. That’s why you are here.

You had lost count of how many floors and admired the beautiful offices and their clean, sleek designs.  
That gun gray with the occasional potted plants. He climbed around the windows that had lights on, preferring not to get spotted so early on. 

You couldn’t hear the grinding of metal over the wind and the honking of cars from below. It was beautiful… 

You couldn’t remember the last time you had been so high up. Forget your apartment. You mean being out, on top of a building like this, in the middle of the night. It sure was different having company on a mission, but you had to say that you didn’t mind it. It was so much more fun this way.

The turrets. Here we go.  
He had stopped climbing as the first turret came into view. 

“That’s the only one we need to worry about for now. Our entrance is right above it.” 

You held on as tight as you could and reached for your holo-pad. 

“I sent for a code from an old friend. He hooked me up, so let me see if I can make this work.” 

You typed on your screen, now close enough to access it and entered the codes. Upon entering, your heart leaped into your throat, watching the turrets twitch up in alert. 

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck….” 

You typed in another and watched them power down. A breath escaped your lips that you had no idea you had even been holding. 

“What was that?”  
You shut down the other closest turrets with the same code and just shook your head, a nervous smile plastered on your face. 

“PSHH, it’s fine! Nothing to worry about!... heh…” 

He decided to ignore you and moved onto the small entrance in the mostly glass building, pushing you through before climbing in himself. You fell to the floor of an office. It was empty and dark, thank goodness, so you pulled out your pad to start shutting down cameras and access others nearby. 

Your heart stammered when you heard him climb into the room. It sounded like claws scraping against the metal as he crawled through, dropping onto all fours and sitting beside you, crouched like he was ready to ready to pounce. 

His bright orange eyes shown through the darkness as you sifted through the camera feed, doing your best to find this next target. This one was probably going to be the most upsetting yet. He was said to be working on another simulacrum program and with that knowledge, it couldn’t be good for him at all. 

“I’m looking!” 

You whispered with irritation; his staring started to grind at you. Trying to pay him no mind, you found one camera in particular that interested you, but knew it would upset him. 

It was a laboratory set up. There was a robot strapped to a table, similar to his model but different. It was more feminine. It looked kinder than him, definitely, with a sleek blue and black body. It didn’t appear to have life yet or if it did, it was simply powered down. It was horrifying.

The thought of someone inside of that thing. Trapped. It’s like forcing a human into a coma and keeping them prisoner there until you want them to wake. At that point, they usually don’t have any control over the body they were given. Memories wiped.  
It crushed you to think that at some point… that was Revenant on a table like that.

“What did you find?” 

You couldn’t show him that. You wouldn’t dare ignite that rage within him. You didn’t want to see him despair more than anything, because some part of you knew that this would crush him too. 

“Thought I could make something out, but I was wrong. Still looking.” 

“Well look faster. We don’t have all night and you’re waiting my time.” 

OH, GOODY!!!!

You found him all right. He was standing right beside the other target, appeared to be talking over paper work. They were in a lab sort of room with a desk and other tables. 

You held your breath as you saw who else was in the room. It was a child. A child was sitting on the floor, holding a stuffed bear and eating fucking graham crackers. 

Would Rev kill a child? He didn’t hesitate to kill that woman. 

That child would cry and he would have to quiet it just like with her. Her blood sprayed over the glass, her screams becoming gurgles. 

You couldn't breathe. You couldn’t do this. Women, elderly, FUCKING animals If you’re desperate, but children…? 

No.

You couldn’t ever do it if there were children like that involved. 

Your brother. You remembered how he held your finger, how you fed him and changed him, or watched him play with the other toddlers as he grew older. 

You also watched him collapse to the floor like a bag of potatoes after he had been shot in an armed robbery. You were all just at the bank while your mother was trying to open a new savings account. It was a all a rush. A blur. The men were there. There were gunshots and your brother, along with a few others, were on the floor. 

Was blood supposed to be that dark? In the light it’s a little brighter… 

“What in the hell is the matter with you!? Pull yourself together, Meat sack, or I’ll give you a reason to panic!!!” 

Your head raced as you woke from your flashback. Sweat rolled down your brow and your hands shook, nearly dropping the holo-pad. You couldn’t talk. Could barely breathe. Your fingers… were they tingling?  
Numb? Your whole body felt distant now so you weren’t for sure. 

“Wake the fuck up, damn it!” 

The sharp cold of his metal hand helped pull you back in a little, although his grip was tight on your, thankfully, uninjured arm. It was still threatening. 

His voice box grumbled in a fit of rage as he moved to grab your face, forcing you to look at him.  
Your eyes were so far away. He realized what was happening and his fingers relented in their hold on you. 

PTSD. 

He had experienced it as a human. Hell, he experienced it even now as a machine. 

To put up the illusion of being human, he had feelings, he had senses. He could feel fear, though he knew there was no reason for him to feel that. 

Every death he had experienced replayed in his head and anytime he saw something related to those deaths, he felt a twinge of something in his programming. He recalled that memory of being trapped under the ice or stabbed in the heart.  
It was as vivid and as real as the day it happened. 

This was happening to you. 

“Snap out of it. Talk to me. Tell me what you saw in there.” 

You heard him. You heard his voice. Why was he sounding so soft with you? The real Rev was an asshole. At least, as far as you knew. You didn’t know him very well. 

“A… it’s a… it’s a child. It’s a child in the room with the target.” 

You said it. You were surprised you managed to get anything out of your mouth, but he was touching you, talking to you. He managed to pull something out. 

You heard him scoff and push you gently out of his grip. 

“That’s it? A child. You’re getting worked up over a tiny sack of meat as if there aren’t thousands upon thousands of others out ther-“ 

“You shut your goddamned mouth.”

He got quiet. You expected him to attack you, threaten you, call you pathetic. Anything. He only sat there like he usually does in his fits of silence and kept his eyes on you like a hawk. You normally had a sort of quiet, submissive nature to you, so hearing those words were definitely strange to him. 

His head turned, finally, looking at the door. 

“What room are they in?” 

You clambered to your feet, knees shaking, threatening to give out. He stood with you, looking over you, waiting for an answer you didn’t want to give. 

“Tell me where!”

You just wanted to go home. In order to do that, you had to get this over with already. The baby. You couldn’t let him kill it. 

“Don’t.” 

“Tell me what room the target is in!” 

“You can’t do thi-“ 

He grabbed you and pushed you over onto a desk, his hands holding your armor belts.

“If you don’t tell me where they are, I'm gonna-“ 

He couldn’t even finish his sentence before your fist connected with his metal face, leaving smears of blood from your knuckles over his cheek and jaw. Not that you noticed on the jaw since it was just as red. 

You kicked at him, your foot connecting with his small waist. He hissed and backed off, sharp fingers curled around the area you had kicked. 

How Had he not fucking killed you yet? 

You figured that his knee jerk reaction to you assaulting him would have been to just kill you, but clearly he had other plans. He was fuming mad, though. 

“Don’t you dare touch that child.” 

He laughed darkly. 

“That’s it? That’s what’s got you kicking at me? You know I could kill you without an ounce of effort and yet you challenge me over a brat?” 

“YOU FUCKING HEARD ME!” 

You had shouted. Hopefully these walls were thicker than they looked. As far as you knew most of this section of the building was empty. You should be fine. Your cry had him still, though. Listening. 

“Don’t touch it. Let it scream all it wants. Don’t touch it. They will find it and it will be safe. Do you fucking understand me?”

You told him where they were and he immediately left the room, leaving you to sit there and wonder where you were to go from here and whether or not he even listened to you. You pulled out the holo-pad and watched the cameras, watching him move down the halls, silently, looking for that room. 

It didn’t take long for him to find it. Not at all. He kicked in the door as elegantly as he does and his fist immediately connected with the jaw of one of the targets. 

The baby immediately starts crying and you are so tempted to just shut it off. 

You saw him go for the next one, surprised to see him there as you had not informed him that both were in the same room. 

He was holding a weapon of course, firing and the shot had clearly hit him somewhere important because you had never seen him flinch like that. Then, the roar. A roar of rage and the metal erupted into shadows and black fire. 

He pushed the man back as he continued to take shots, knocking the gun out of his hands and punching him in the head, not hard enough to kill him, but enough to discombobulate him. 

He was taking his time with this one. He knew. 

You heard him scream for forgiveness, promise to shut it down, never do it again. You heard him beg for his daughter, heard him scream in agony as his daughter screamed in fear. 

Those screams were far too close to your own.  
Revenant snatched the gun up off of the floor and shot the first target in the head, then looked back at the begging man. 

You heard him say it. 

“Your life was in vain… I like that… I like hearing you scream for me to stop… Do you want to know a secret?” 

He shot the man in both kneecaps. He screamed and wailed, his pleading turned to babbling incoherently and Revenant only spoke once he quieted down to whimpers. 

“I screamed for them to stop too.” 

He shoved his metal fingers into the bullet wound and ripped down his leg, blood rushing and welling up faster, pooling below him. 

“I screamed and screamed, just like you are now, and they just kept going. They kept stabbing and stabbing!”  
His hand sharpened and finally struck him in the chest, tearing back out of him in a wet, meaty, crack.  
The only screams that remained were from that of the baby. 

You could tell that he had been injured in the leg as he had a slight limp to his step. 

It had actually messed up a joint? You couldn’t concentrate on his injuries completely because you still heard those cries. 

Don’t kill it.

He walked over to it, standing tall over the crying baby as it hugged at its bear, still sitting in the same spot, it’s crackers forgotten. 

“Dah… Dah… D-“ 

Her dad was dead on the floor, mutilated and she had to watch. Just like you did. Just like you watched your brother. 

He bent over the child and you jolted forward. 

“DON'T!” 

You screamed. He stopped almost as if he had heard you. 

He put his hands up in an almost surrendering way, before leaning over the baby again, lifting it up in his arms. 

He was holding it? 

He carried it out of the room with him, struggling with his limp and banged as hard as he could on the wall. 

“I KNOW YOU’RE IN HERE. ONE OF YOU COME OUT!” 

A door down the hall clicked open and a young woman peeked out, she flinched back as if to close the door, but saw the baby and waited instead. 

“Take this fucking thing.”  
She crept out into the hall and took the baby quickly, but gently from him and scurried back into her office, slamming the door. 

“Happy now?” He said, looking up at one of the cameras he knew was watching him. 

Tears of relief ran down your cheeks as you weakly said yes in the comms. 

He returned to the room he was in and smashed through the glass to climb out and back up to your location. 

Hack the turrets in his side of the building and wait for him to come get you and wear you like a trembling backpack. 

He carried you the whole way home, which was a surprise, considering that his leg was still messed up, but he never let you down from his back and you never questioned or attempted to get down.  
You were just so tired. You blacked out every security camera within your range, which was damn near half the city and then passed out against Revenant’s cowl, fingers wrapped around the red belt, holding you to him. 

…  
…

Your head ached as you woke up on the couch. Your leg was propped up on your pillow, but you were cold from the A.c. being turned up. 

“What in the fuck?” You murmured, getting up from the couch and moving to the window. There were so many police everywhere and for good reason. They were looking, but you knew they weren’t going to find you. As far as they knew, you weren’t even there. 

You were craving that egg roll about now, checking out your fridge to see if there were any left. You heard some rustling back by your room. You assumed it was Revenant, though you didn’t know what he was doing back there. Probably maintenance that you couldn’t preform due to you being unconscious. 

Yummy. You found the egg rolls, pulling out and searching for a plate and paper towels. You are gonna microwave this son of a bitch. You were that fucking hungry. You hadn’t eaten since your bowl of cereal and were so ready to put something into your stomach, until of course you remembered what happened last night. 

Maybe you weren’t all that hungry. You paused, staring down at it, wondering whether to eat it or not since you became queasy. 

“You should eat.” 

You jumped a little at how close behind you his voice was and how considerate it was in spite of him being an ass. 

“What in the hell do you want?” 

He crossed his arms and backed up, leaning against your counter.

“I want you to eat that.” 

You asked him why in the fuck he could possibly care and he of course responded with the Spiel of how he needed you to be in good shape to go out again.

“Why did you listen to me?” 

He rolled his head up in an attempt to make it obvious he was rolling his eyes. 

“ I didn’t want to hear your pathetic whining or deal with your bullshit when we got back.” 

He looked to tender back there for that have to been all. 

He shoved you unceremoniously out of the way and put the egg roll in the microwave for you. Why he was doing that was beyond you, but him dragging you back into the living room and pushing you onto the couch was pretty beyond you as well. 

“Tell me why you froze up. Tell me why you got sentimental over a baby.” 

Your eyes grew cold at that, awakening a train of thoughts you weren’t in the mood to ride. 

“Don’t you dare bring that up.” You said quietly, but threatening. You wanted to stay as calm as you could, knowing that he didn’t understand or couldn’t. 

“It’s not your fucking business.”  
He kept a fair distance from you, not wanting to get physical this time it seemed. 

“It’s my business if you plan to compromise any other missions. Do you ever think that child is going to grow up and seek revenge on me? Train to become a monster like us just so they can fall like everyone else?” 

“It doesn’t matter. It’s a child. It’s innocent and doesn’t understand.” 

“Exactly. It doesn’t understand. It doesn’t understand what’s happening to it. So why, do you care?” 

“Because my brother didn’t understand when he was shot. Because my brother didn’t understand why he was bleeding… BECAUSE MY BROTHER DIDN’T UNDERSTAND WHY HE WAS DYING!!! HE WAS JUST A CHILD! THOSE FUCKING MONSTERS TOOM HIM FROM ME! IF I EVER FOUND THEM, I'D SKIN THEM ALIVE!” 

You stood up from the couch and grabbed one of those red belts on his chest. He twitched like he wanted to grab you, snap your fucking wrist for daring to touch him, but he remained still, letting you speak. 

“AND YOU! I don’t give a fuck if you are some cold blooded murderer! If you so much as even think about killing a child, this is over! You can get the fuck out or kill me, I don’t care!” 

You panted, your chest feeling a little lighter after pouring out your heart. You don’t think you’d talked to anybody about this. Not even your mother spoke about your brother's death. She seemed to cope by pretending it never happened. Pretending he was still kind of there, though he wasn’t. It was sad. 

“If you’re waiting for me to be sorry for you and coddle you, you’ll be in your grave before you get it. Get over it. The rest of us out there had to. It’s time you do the same.” 

Your heart burned. It was cruel. It was heartless to say something like that no matter how right he was.  
Your brother was in the past. This is your future. That didn’t mean you had to forget he existed and refuse to mourn him. 

“I can’t and I wont. This is my one fucking rule. My one exception. No children. Never.” 

He didn’t respond with words this time. Just nodded and then sat down onto the arm of the couch, looking at the black screen of your television. 

“I’m going to my room, unless you want me to take a look at your leg.” 

He attempted to move his leg as he had just remembered that it was malfunctioning. 

“Fine. Eat the fucking food, first.”


	5. I know what you have

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You go out for lunch and pick up a package for Rev.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings at the bottom

“So, what’s on the agenda today?”

Revenant had stepped into your room and dropped the tablet on your lap, waiting for you to give it a look over. 

“Oh, this. Alright, yeah, we still had two more guys to go after that. It was cut so drastically short by my outburst. I will not apologize for it.”

His shoulders raised in a half-assed shrug. 

“I didn’t expect you to. We’re gonna go get them tomorrow, they’ll be at their place of work. We’ll get the drop on them there.”

You stepped out of your bed, sighing with relief that you had chosen to wear shorts to bed. God, imagine him seeing you in your underwear or… GASP… nothing at all… that would’ve been terrible. Absolutely embarrassing, which you’ve done enough of that already. 

Hm. Something was off.

He seemed a lot more tense, like how someone is if they really want to say something, but they don’t? its an odd feeling you got from him. You weren’t going to pry. You had a feeling that if you did, he’d be pretty pissed, maybe to the point of killing you. I mean, he’s gotten pretty close from this last time. Well, he really didn’t try to kill you. Really it was just a scare tactic. You imagined that he probably forgot for a second that he was some big killer machine that could poke a squishy thing like you and make all the goods come out. Like a meat piñata. 

“Tomorrow may or may not conflict with work. Ill have to check with my boss to see if I’m on schedule.”  
He tilted his head at you, not in a cute way, but more like in a “Are you fucking kidding me,” kinda way. He asked you if your boss just sends you missions and if that were the case, why would you need to worry about it clashing if you weren’t given any yet.

“When I was in the syndicate, they sent the mission directly to you, gave you a time or time limit, a place, and a reward price. It gave you time to get your shit together and head out. You’d have some time between being given the mission and carrying it out.”

You touched the back of your head and also shrugged, but more comically. 

“Well, my boss does things differently. We do get missions directly, but we also have to convene at “the office” to collect other potential missions. We have a quota to meet. Its like a bounty hunter board. If you don’t meet your quota of “bounties” you are punished. I do not wish to be strung up, my good sir.”

He scoffed, crossing his metal arms over his polished chest and looking away sharply.

“That’s ridiculous.”

You couldn’t agree more. If you had your way, you would tell your boss to fuck off and just send them to you, but telling Frederick to fuck off was a one way ticket to Fuckville. You die is what you were getting at.  
“Believe me, I would run a syndicate better. By the way, what rank were you in your syndicate? You had to be high up there, you’re fucking awesome at what you do. I mean, being a metal murder machine helps, but you have skill in your step.”

His eyes seemed to light up, even if that’s all they were, were just a color changing light, it was all in his posture as he seemed to be almost excited to talk about it. Or gloat…

“I was the best of the best in that god damned place. Those worms didn’t stand a chance against me. I remember that clear as day.”

Story time! Pry time! Time to pry!!!

You plopped on your bed and motioned for him to go on, which made him growl, but he reluctantly continued to talk about what it was like.

“I lived in a nice apartment, not unlike this one. The money was so good and it just kept coming in with every kill. I couldn’t be stopped. I was the storm, the one they all feared… one look at my face and it made them know that it was their last day alive.”

You held your chin in your hands, kicking your legs behind you as you listened like a teenage girl talking on her phone to her bestiest friends about boys, and make up, and politics, and weapons, and about the science of blood spatter…

You didn’t have very many friends to talk to.

This friend may not want to talk anymore either since he once again, for like the hundredth time, got really quiet, like he wanted to end the conversation.

“Moving on, I will contact him tonight and see if I have the luxury of taking tomorrow off to do a dangerous mission. In the mean time, lets do something that wont get you into trouble.”

Lunch sounded good about now. You figured you would go out and eat to give him some privacy and maybe pick something up for him.

“Where are you going?”

You threw on some nice clothes and had grabbed your keys.

“I’m getting lunch. You want anything? Not for lunch of course, but just anything?”

His response was surprisingly quick as he told you to pick him up a package from somewhere. They were going to make a detour to pick it up tomorrow, but if you were going out now, it would be safer to get it today. You weren’t going to argue since he was right. Grabbing stuff on the side after murdering two people was going to be out of the way and difficult. 

“Ok. Just upload the coordinates to me and ill get it.”  
As you grabbed for your door, he grabbed your wrist tightly.

“Don’t open it.”

Your heart sank. What could possibly be in that box? Its not that you would have opened it in the first place but that he is so insistent that you don’t see it, was a little unnerving. 

“It’s not anything dangerous is it?”

He shook his head slowly and that was your answer. 

“Okay, I promise. I wont open it. Ill grab it and come straight to you.”

He let go of you, giving you chills as his fingers brushed over the skin of your arm. Why did you like that so much? His cold, smooth fingers raised every hair on your arms up to the back of your neck. It was delightful in the most weirdest of ways.

“Bye. Ill be back soon.”

He responded with a huff, but didn’t turn away to slink off to his room. He watched you close the door.

….

He felt a slight bit of emptiness with you gone as much as he hated to admit it. You were an annoying brat that just didn’t know when to shut up, but maybe that was his favorite part.

Not many people even dared to talk to him, so much as look at him. If anyone was close enough to talk or look at him, however, they were most certainly going to be killed within the next few minutes of meeting. That’s just the way it was. That was how his programming worked. Everyone he met, he just wanted to kill. He wanted to reach in and pull out those soft, squishy innards and strew them across the floor. He wanted to hear them scream and beg…

He had a love-hate relationship with it. On one hand, it made him feel so alive to end someone else’s, but on the other, he remembered a time he valued human life. 

He had been a skinsuit as well. He remembered the blonde hair and the blue eyes. His red button up and black vest were adorned before his mission. 

He remembered many different faces, but he knew this one was the one when he saw it. It was him. It was everything he wished he could be and more. Human. How badly he just wanted to die and end this cycle of rage already. He couldn’t and therefore, the rage couldn’t. All of this anger couldn’t possibly end until he was put to rest.

You made it a little easier.

You were someone who listened to him, gave him a place to stay and was oddly friendly to him. No one would look at him and think, “Would he want anything if I want out?” no one. 

He could do without the emotional bullshit though. As a killer, emotions get you killed. He thought about a little girl he had left some time ago after killing her family. It was right before he had found out about what he was, before he had woken up from that god damned daydream. 

Before he saw HIS face in the reflection flicker and disappear forever and reveal something hideous.

There was a young girl with rage in her eyes. Those young girls grow up and could potentially become monsters, could want revenge. Those spared children maybe innocent, but what becomes of them when they grow up? When they understand what had happened and want to take their revenge? They fall. They all fall to their knees and die like their parents did. If that girl were to ever find him, it would be no different. In his opinion, it would be so much quicker and painless to kill them. That way, they don’t have to grow with that pain and rage only to be snuffed out.

You were hurt.

You had seen your brother, as a child, die horrendously. 

As far as he could remember, nothing like that had ever happened to him. Sure, he saw many people die, but none of them were family. He could imagine the pain though. He could imagine the feeling of absolute loss and grief.

He turned to see the mirror that hung on your wall beside the door. He saw the white and red of his face and thought back to that day. The day he panicked as he realized he had no tongue. He had no mouth. 

He had no skin. 

Fear crawled through him at that memory. It was the one that would haunt him the most. It was the one that would be hiding under his bed if he ever slept in one. The memory of being blinded by panic, breathing hard, though there wasn’t a real reason to breathe. He was a machine. Why couldn’t he breathe? Why did he feel like everything was falling apart?

Glass shattered around him and he realized he had just punched your mirror, scattering the shards all over the floor.

“FUCK!”

He dropped to his knees, punching the glass til it was merely dust. He couldn’t dare look at that reflection any longer. He couldn’t look unless it was his real face.  
He sat there on his hands and knees on your floor, staring down at the destroyed bits of mirror.

“fuck.”  
…

…

…

You enjoyed your lunch, filling your stomach with whatever the hell it was and gossiping to your hacking contact. He went by the call sign: Crypto. 

He was a pretty handsome Korean fellow that had been through some pretty crazy stuff, but was an amazing hacker. As far as you knew, he was the best hacker in the world. There was nothing he couldn’t crack and he boasted as much to you. 

“Yeah the first one was my code. Clearly it didn’t work, but lucky I contacted you! You saved my but out there Tae!”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Heeey, don’t be an ass. You know we are in public and if I started calling you “that” everyone and their mother would be turning me in.”

“Mwodeunji*…”

You sighed dramatically and sipped your tea. You loved him, but he was acting like your new roommate.

“So any word on your friend?”

The line was silent for a bit, giving you time to take a couple bites before he answered.

“No sign yet. I am still watching.”

He sounded sad. There was no doubt in your mind that he was still so crushed about this. She was close to him. Family. And he lost her. He had sent you a picture of her once, she had a cocky, but sweet smile and had her beanie over her eyebrows as Park was trying to pull it down over her eyes.

It was sweet… reminded you of the days with your mom before your brother died. She would ruffle your hair or your brother would tug at your shirt sleeve and ask you to get him a “sippy juice.” That’s what he called a sippy cup filled with apple juice or cheerios, he called “chee- chees.”

“Don’t give up. I have a feeling she’s still out there. As soon as I get extra time, I’ll-“

“It is fine. Your offer is not unappreciated, but I have to do this alone.”

He was stubborn. Stubborn and a fool, but so talented that you didn’t doubt for one second that he could do it all by himself. It just didn’t feel right. Something personal like this shouldn’t be dealt with alone. Sometimes you need your friends to help.

“Don’t forget that I can help you when I have time, okay?”

He uttered a quiet yes and then the line cut off. 

God, you just made everyone around you sad. Were you just a living, breathing, rainy cloud that walked around and made people miserable? If he had any sort of lead on her, he would have told you. You felt terrible for saying anything.

Your mouth filter is always malfunctioning. You mean well, but say the wrong things. It was only in hindsight that you wished you could take it all back so that you didn’t have to hear that static silence in your ear. You thought about Revenant.

He was definitely a human before. What did he look like? What did he wear? You assumed it would be something edgy like leather or sunglasses or some douchey shit that he would dig. He would be that asshat to wear sunglasses indoors. Yeahhh.

You laughed under your breath at the thought of him in some Fonz outfit, white shirt, leather jacket and blue jeans, with the dumb sunglasses. You didn’t really have a face to put behind it, though. Brown hair? Maybe he’d have brown hair? You’d dig that. Maybe he dyed his hair crazy colors. God, imagine if it were like a green mohawk or some crazy shit. Nah, nah. That would be too flashy for a high maintenance assassin of his stature. 

Wait? He wanted you to get something… 

“Right. Package.” 

You said out loud as you gathered up your things and paid the check. Sure enough, after checking your holo-watch communicator, it pulled up the coordinates to the mysterious package dealer.  
It wasn’t too far off. It was in a relatively public area and it was near many different routes of escape if they were to try anything funny. 

…

It was a bit of walking, but after a meal like that, you needed the exercise. It was a nice day regardless and It would be a shame to spend all of it indoors with Rev. You enjoyed the feeling of the bright, warm rays on your skin after it soaked up a good bit of that restaurant AC. 

People were window shopping, playing instruments and chatting, that soft crowd rumble feeling unusually calming. Normally so many people in one place made you uncomfortable, but it was a comfort now that you were meeting some strange person to retrieve a strange package.

You moved through an alleyway as a shortcut and was surprised to see a small group of people there. A woman in an odd white outfit looked you over, her braids were dark brown and progressively got redder as it got longer. Her bright red eye shadow looked like some someone just smeared it on her face. She probably could use some lessons on application. Her smile was unnerving. She looked at you like you were food and you didn’t like that for a goddamned second. 

“And who might you be?”

Her voice was beautiful but slightly gruff. It sounded like… ‘don’t fuck with me and we will get along.’ Kinda voice. At least in your humblest of opinions. 

“I am none of your business, ma’am.”

You attempted to push past her to get to your destination, but she stood in your way, a couple other gremlins stood in front of you as well. 

“You aren’t like the others… I can smell it.”

She leaned in close to your ear and inhaled deeply. Her exhale was hot against your throat and ear.

“Blood. Its all over you…”

Fucking bitch.

“I really don’t have time for this. Its my day off and I have errands to run. Are you gonna slobber over me all day or are you going to tell me what you want from me already?”

Her brows pinched in anger. She seemed like the kind of woman to retaliate if one were to “disrespect” her, but she wasn’t made of metal. She scared you far less than some.

“How about you act a little more cooperative?”

One of the men beside her rushed you, trying to land a punch or grab you? You weren’t sure. All you knew was that he was on the ground after your swept his feet out from under him. 

The other man attempted to tackle you, but you rolled out of the way. Damn these guys were pathetic. They were seriously like your typical, ugly goons that bad guys would have to do their dirty work. Sadly enough, these boys weren’t trained to fight with the intent to kill. Sure, their intent may be to kill, but what separates the rookies from the pros…

Are whether or not you’re good at it.

In one swift motion, you got to your feet, dodging a left hook and managing ot uppercut this fucker in the jaw, blood spurted from his mouth and he spat something out. Ew. That was the end of his tongue. The fucker had bit off his tongue. Uck….

He squealed and wailed like a pig as you turned to be face to face with the first one. He had dirt scraped onto his tan face and scuffed clothes. Too bad his next dirt nap was imminent.

You moved to strike him, but he dodged, grabbing you by the arm and attempting to pull you in to assumedly restrain you, but instead you turned your caught arm to grip him, your other hand coming to its aid as you pulled him over you and dropped him to the ground. He looked like he had lost his breath. Good. 

You gave his chest one good stomp. If it didn’t fuck him up, it sure as hell told him not to get up again.  
The woman just watched, amused. 

“Well, that was certainly a show.”  
You were getting tired of her shit. You needed to grab  
Rev’s box of mystery and get home so you could boot up another episode of your favorite show. You had no time for this weird lady’s crap.

“Come on, bitch. Dinner was served. Dessert is fucking ready.’

She lifted up a hand. “I’ll pass. I wont deny the offer is tempting, but I don’t want to ruin my good clothes with your blood.”

Your lips tightened in a frown? Maybe just line? You were really stressed out is the point of this ramble. You wanted to paint the bland ass walls with her white ass clothes. 

“They’re the ugliest clothes I’ve ever laid eyes on.”  
She laughed, her yellow eyes bright despite the awful smell of mischief about her.

“Ill take that as a compliment from you.”  
Her arms crossed over her chest and she leaned against the brick. 

“You asked me what I wanted from you? You know someone. You know someone I want. I want you to give them to me.”

You had a feeling that you knew who she was talking about. All you could think about were the red tear markings under the eyes of his white, skull face.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

Her face became hard at that, eyes narrowing, teeth cenching.

“You know full well who Im talking about. You and i… we have connections.. We know things… I know you have what I want… “

It was your turn to be cold after trying so hard to stay calm.

“You have no idea what you’re messing with if you mess with me. You do anything to find me, attack me… You will be in for a world of hurt. It wont be me, it will be hundreds of others… you wont be able to sleep at night because all of them will know where you are and watch until you let your guard down. I fucking swear to you…”

You stepped up to her, face to face, so close you could smell her minty breath.

“If you mess with me, you fuck yourself. That’s not a threat. That’s a promise from an entire organization.”

Her expression was different now. Still cocky, but clearly threatened. She broke eye contact and motioned for you to move on. Thank fucking god. You didn’t think you were going to roll so high for intimidation. 

But of course, as you walked by her, you could hear her make one last jab. 

“This isn’t over.”

You scoffed in her direction, but kept walking.

“Believe me, lady, it is.”

“It’s Loba… and don’t forget it.”

You rolled your eyes and headed toward your destination. 

“I won’t.”

….

…

“Rev! I got your- HOLY SHIT! My mirror… “

You reached for your pistol since no one answered. You hoped to hell that that wolf bitch wasn’t behind this. If it was, you were impressed with how fast she got her phonies down here to tear it up while Rev was here…

Where was Rev?

You moved through the apartment, checking doors and making sure there were no hidden enemies in the area. Your search brought you to Revenant’s door which was cracked open. The mirror mess left a trail to his door, which he never left open. It was a bad idea to do this, but you thought you would give it a shot. 

“Rev? Rev, I’m home! You uh… you ok in there?”  
You gave his door a small knock, but there was still no answer. 

You pushed open the door, your breath caught in your throat as you saw him slumped against the wall, scrapes all over his head and arms. Wires were torn and some fluid was leaking out of him and onto the floor.

“REV!?”

You didn’t even think. You rushed into the room and fell to your knees in front of him, checking over him. His eyes were open, but they weren’t looking at you. It was if they were looking past you.

“Revenant! Rev! Speak to me! Say something, come on!!”

Your hands moved to hold his face, pulling his head up to look at you, seeing that his cowl had been torn up and the metal of his forehead was scraped to high hell. 

“What in the world…?”

You looked around the room and saw tools, weapons, ammunition and what not lying around. The guest bed looked rumpled like it had been used to sit on or something. The television was off, but soft music was playing from his communication device that you so kindly purchased for him. It sounded sad.

Your thumb gently caressed the mean scratches on his   
forehead and before you could even move to look at the rest of him, his strong, metal grip was damn near crushing your arm, the same arm he held before you left. 

“DON’T TOUCH ME… WHY ARE YOU IN HERE!?”

You didn’t know what to say. This had been the first time you probably felt genuine fear towards him, although not for your own safety, but for his.

“I-… You’re hurt…”

He looked like he was trying to get up, but couldn’t, so he just settled for yelling.

“I DON’T WANT YOU HERE! GET OUT!”

Your heart raced in your chest as his hand continued to squeeze. Holy shit. This fucker was going to break your arm… that leak cant be good though… you had to look at him.

“No. I’m not leaving.” You said quietly, tears beginning to well at your eyes, “Let go, so I can help you.”

He roared and growled, his voice box becoming static as he attempted to move.

“Stop… please stop it, Rev.”

You reached up to hold the hand that was squeezing you so tight. You felt his fingers tense and then lighten his hold on you. You, the opposite, held his hand as tight as you could. You weren’t sure if he could feel it with his injuries, but you hoped he did.

“I don’t know what happened… You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to… please let me help you.”

You hadn’t been so genuinely terrified for someone since the loss of your brother. Adrenaline ran through your veins just like when you both met. You were so scared that he would die that you couldn’t think about how you held his hand. You couldn’t think about how you cried for him or opened up. It was almost intimate, but not romantically. Two assassins being soft to each other, providing comfort of any kind was strange. Not unheard of, but weird. To be a better assassin, you’re supposed to set aside your emotions and focus only on the mission. Relying on emotions make you vulnerable to attack on an emotional scale.

Those can be the worst. Enemies can use the people you love to hurt you unless you shut off your emotions. Keep loved ones at a distance. You can’t let them use anyone against you. 

Did he follow that to a T as a human? By the looks of it now he probably had. Even now in this docile state, he looked distant. He looked hesitant to cooperate. A snake poised at strike at any second.   
You loosened your grip on his hand just enough to stroke his fingers gently with your thumb as reassurance. You knew he didn’t want it, but it’s what he needed. 

Your free hand explored his injured body, looking for whatever was damaged and assessing how bad it was. 

To your surprise, he looked fine, but shaken. The fluid leak was a lubricant tube that had been torn during … whatever happened. It wasn’t fatal or anything. It would just cause joint rusting if not replaced. 

Some wires that were torn were a part of the reason his legs no longer wanted to function. It was easy to fit them together, since it was such a clean break, and secure them.

The scratches could easily be fixed. He had a guy for that, you figured. 

“You’re going to need to take it easy til I get the part for this.” 

You wiped your eyes with your arm and released that shaky breath you had been holding. 

“Can you tell me…? Did someone do this to you?”   
His head turned away slightly before shaking ‘no.’

“Can you tell me why?” 

His fingers twitched around your arm and you continued to stroke them gently. 

“You don’t have to-“ 

“You're right. I don’t have to. Fucking skinsuit… don’t have to tell you a fucking thing.” 

You pulled the cowl off his head. It wasn’t too badly damaged, so it would just need a quick patch job and it’d be good as new. You did feel a little disappointed about it being ruined, but you couldn’t even make a snarky thought about the cowl. Not with Rev sitting here in this state. 

“It's ok.” 

He pulled his hand away from you and tried to stand up, but his joints ached, so he found it to feel better sitting down. 

“I don’t need you to tell me it’s ok. I need you out of here! Get out, already. Why won’t you fucking listen?” 

You rested a hand on the bright red metal of his thigh plate. Tears fell freely, nose red, lip quivering slightly. You never would have thought you were an assassin by the state you were in. 

“Rev. Please…” 

He relented.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * whatever 
> 
> Warnings: slight gore, machine self harm, panic attacks, PTSD


	6. How could this happen to you?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crypto sends you some files regarding your new friend. They aren't pretty.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your support! 
> 
> Love you guys!
> 
> Don't forget to kudos and comment!!!  
> It only gets spicier from here ❤❤❤

You sat on the floor in your living room, back against the back of the couch. He had been in his room for a couple days now, canceling the earlier plans of hunting. You were worried about him, after all, you had never seen him like that. You never took him to be the kinda person to hurt himself. He always seemed like he would be too busy hurting someone else to do such a thing to himself. He was an asshole. 

He was selfish, right? All he cared about was his revenge and then some. You couldn’t possibly imagine what was going on inside his head. You couldn’t possibly imagine the chaos and suffering, disguised as anger, that swirled in those eyes of his. It may be just light to others, but you can see. You see right through that light and make out so much more.

You wondered, as you sat there on your plush carpet, what could he possibly be thinking to push him to that. That was the thing, though. Only he knows. You knew that out of all the things he broke down and told you, that was going to be the one thing he would never answer. He was much too prideful for that, even in his weakest of moments. 

The part had come in the day before and you repaired it immediately. No words were exchanged, no tears were shed. That was a win for you because you got so close so many times. You promised yourself that you wouldn’t. Carefully, so carefully, you installed it with nimble fingers. He even let you clean him up, the parts of the metal that were still coated in that nasty oil that had spilled all over him in the event of breaking that particular part.

He had still been seated where he fell, leaned against the wall, his head low and looking at the floor. He had acknowledged your presence with a nod and you got to work.

“Rev…”

You looked at his door and wondered why you said that aloud. You wondered why you would be so worried about him when all he’s done is threaten you.

He’s lost like me.

You repeated it in your head until the sound of your cellular device began ringing. It was on the other side of the living room. It was a drag to have to get up, but it was probably important and with how things went down with your boss earlier, you didn’t really want to miss a call from him. You had told him something urgent had happened and so your ‘office’ meeting would have to wait. He was upset, but understood and let you get back to it. 

“Crypto?” 

You answered, not expecting your Korean friend to be calling you for any reason in particular, especially after the delightful conversation you had before. You also knew that your good friend was involved in the Apex Games. There isn’t a lot of time to chat when you’ve got matches to prepare for. When he wasn’t fighting, he was looking for her.

“What’s up, Cryp?”  
Immediately, his voice was quick and laced with concern.  
“You need to check this out. I’m sending you the file now.”

Anxiety churned in your chest, tightening your throat and jaw. What was he needing to show you so urgently? It wasn’t her was it? You thought of his friend, but your thoughts were soon dashed to see black and neon flashes of some factory labeled: Factory #032.  
Flashes of red enveloped your living room as pictures of his face and images of Hammond Robotics simulacrum projects surrounded you. 

A lot of them looked like Revenant. They were hanging. So many of them hung together in the images, but the one that caught your eye was the picture of a head. Its eyes were open, but dead, staring into nothing. It was held in a tank, wires being fed into it. 

“Rev? Oh, my…” 

You had thought you felt horror before. You thought you couldn’t be anymore horrified when you saw your brother die or when you thought Rev was going to kill that child in front of you. No… this was the peak. This was the peak of horror. 

That face… the sharp cheekbones and the plush lips… they reminded you so much or him.

You promised. You promised you wouldn’t cry. 

How had Crypto found all of this? Where did he get all of this? Why was he sending it to you?

You read the words on your screen. 

He was copied multiple times, against the wishes of those who created him, to the point where his mind was breaking. Everything was corrupted. 

“Oh, my god…” you covered your mouth.

This went on so many times that upon the slightest damage to his wiring, he was set free from the controlling program. From what you could tell, he hasn’t died since he was freed. This was the same body he’s had since the day he found out. 

There was a man’s face. The last ordered target he was sent after was a Portuguese man named Marcos Andrade. His wife was also killed, but their daughter still lived. She’d be an adult by now. He had been free for a while.

“What is this?” It was his voice. Your body went numb with adrenaline.

“Who is that!? Who is that-?” you cut of your call with Crypto and turned off your device. Revenant was waiting for an answer.

“A friend sent this to me.”

You turned to face him, your skin was red from all of the red light that enveloped you. Holograms of his picture and of the factory still spun slowly, your eyes focused only on him.

“Why are you looking at it? Who do you think you are to look into my business!?”  
He stalked to you, his legs looking better from what you could tell.

“Revenant… Don’t worry about it.” 

You had to shut this down. You didn’t want to cause him anymore stress, you didn’t want to talk about something that would hurt him.  
Right after you shut everything off, he knocked the couch onto its back, shoulders hunched and breath shaky. 

You just backed up against the wall nearest to your dining room. You weren’t scared, you just thought you would give him some much needed space. He had these fits for a reason. These fits were because of an instability in his mind. His bursts of emotion or anger in particular… 

“I’m sorry. We don’t have to talk about this. I don’t want to know if you don’t want to tell me.”

His breathing turned to rumbling growls, vibrating in his chest as he hunched over like he was debating on attacking something or was in pain. His fingers stretched into what looked like claws, but regained their normal shape seconds later. 

“None of this is your business. None of this is your concern. You look at that again, I will tear you apart. I…”  
Your heart beat hard in your chest as you wondered why he stopped talking so suddenly. There was enough time to think about why he just stood there, poised, eyes glowing, but not with anger. It looked like something out of a horror movie, but instead of the killer robot trying to, of course, kill you, it was confused as hell. 

“Stop crying, skinsuit. I cant believe they let a baby like you join any sort of syndicate with a weak disposition like yours.” 

It seemed like a blink and he was right in your face, eyes boring into yours. The smell of copper flooded your lungs, his warmth on your skin.  
You both stared at each other, your bodies getting closer, but not touching. Your faces so close so you can inhale the heat of his lips, the hot electrical scent you would get from an overheated speaker or an overheating computer. What in the hell was happening right now?

This here was like one of those moments where the person you were just arguing with is suddenly overcome with lust and then the fight turns to some intense hate sex, but you were fairly certain that was not where this was going. If only you knew… you would have been more prepared.

You wanted to speak, say anything, his name even, but you couldn’t. You could only look up, lips parted, heart fluttering with a mix of adrenaline and maybe lust? You saw in your peripheral, his arms boxing you in with your back against the wall. Those metal hands crunching against the wall beside your ears.

Do something… you wanted him to do something. 

Touch you, pull away, do anything, but he stayed put, the only movement was an occasional shift of his body weight onto another foot.

It wasn’t until you exhaled and finally whispered his name that something snapped in him and he pulled away, turning from you and immediately heading back to his room.

What….?

“Son of a bitch….” You said as quietly as you could, fearing he would hear you.

Was that a malfunction? You weren’t sure if you were hoping it was or not, but all you could think about currently, was that arousal that felt like fire in your fingers, toes, and well you know… elsewhere. 

Lips licked, swallowed, and now back to work.

Turning on your phone, it instantly exploded with messages and calls from your good friend, Park Tae Joon. You weren’t in the mood to talk, as you had just experienced the most traumatizing, arousing, and confusing thing in your entire life. Your phone pinged as you sent your apology, letting him know that everything was fine.

Tired legs collapsed to the floor and left you in a weak heap against your wall. You were not going to have any time to do anything about this, nor would you want to after thinking about all of the horrible things that had happened to him. You remembered the head. There had been some text surrounding it about its whereabouts. Where was it?

Your wrist device opened it up again, but just image of the head and smaller so you could examine that text… it was being transferred? It was being transferred to a place called Psamathe… Was Revenant trying to find this? If your thoughts were correct, this was what was keeping him from being able to die. This head was the reason he would be copied again and again, damaging him further, making him more and more unstable.  
What if he wanted to end it? Could you tell him about his? It seemed important, but you were honestly scared to lose him. If he were to be destro- killed for any reason, he could come back, right? Would he be the same? Would he actually kill you instead of making threats?

That woman… she said she knew what you had… she said she wanted what you had. What if this was it? Not the head, but Revenant? What if she wanted him dead? She could be hunting that head. If Crypto could get ahold of this, this information wasn’t completely safe.  
She could find it and kill him.

That thought… the thought of him being killed hurt you a lot more than you thought that it would. You didn’t want him to die. You wanted to help him. You wanted him to be happy. You weren’t even sure if you could do that for him, but you were damn sure you were going to try.

Hammond… Hammond would pay for this. Hammond would pay for everything they had done to him. That face… He was so young when he died. You choked back a sob as you closed the image.

Those plush lips, soft skin were well preserved in that tank. Aside from the dead, blank eyes, he looked very much alive. How would he look if he were alive? What if he had been a human standing over you, his body close to yours, breathing in his breath? What if those soft lips, alive and warm, touched your own? What color would his eyes have been? All you could see was a gold, for now.

Ringing. More ringing. Your phone? Yeah. Yeah, it was your phone.

You answered and it was good ol’ Frederick.

“Yeah, boss, yeah, I … It’s handled, it’s fine. I'll head over right now. I’m very sorry.”

He ridiculed you, telling you that you shouldn’t be so careless about missions. He said that there were two available and that you should take them or you would be made into an example for neglecting your work.

“Of course, sir. I'll take care of it. Don’t worry.”  
Maybe he could help you with something…

“Do you know anything about a… uh… Factory thirty two?”

A few minutes of silence over the line and you could hear the roll of an office chair and some clicking of a key board. 

“That shit is some heavily guarded stuff. How did you even know about that in the first place? You know that your affiliation is with us, right? You shouldn’t be playing around with other assassins or whatnot. Factory thirty-two, that’s… wait…”

More silence. You were certain he was seeing something. 

“What in the hell have you been up to?”

You wouldn’t say anything to him about Revenant just yet, though you were for sure that if he could see even a fraction of the shit you had seen, he would have an idea of what’s going on.

“Just tell me about the place, Frederick, I just want to know. I saw it from some snooping I had been doing and-“

“You are not nearly clever enough to hack something of that caliber-“

“That’s not the point, Frederick-“

“That’s not my name-“

“Not the point, Frederic-“

“Factory thirty-two stores what looks to be parts from a simulacrum project run by Hammond. From what I can tell, it’s location is somewhere under King's Canyon. There’s a good bit more information deeper in, but my skills aren’t adequate enough to break into that. How you even found out about the place is beyond me-“

“Thank you, Frederick. I’m on my way. With or without uniform?”

He sighed. You blessed the few bouts of patience this man had with you. He could have just killed you, but you had a sort of… weird friendship with your boss. 

“With. Stick to the shadows. Your first mission will be tonight. I should push more on this topic, because you are clearly hiding something from me. As long as it isn’t a problem for our organization, I don’t care. Just do your job.”

“Yes, sir.”

You jumped to your feet, clearing your head of your previous worry and/or arousal and nearly ran to your bedroom to get equipped. 

The sound of a zipper screeched in the air as you pulled on your black bodysuit. It was a shiny leather and reminded you of the matrix. You had seen the really, really old movies, really digging Keanu Reeves, but the new actor, Reevess Kean was pretty cool, too.  
Looked just like the guy. It was the coolest reboot ever.  
You were fastening your belt when you heard a door creak open. Probably his. You were hoping he could stay in his room, not wanting things to be awkward after whatever just happened a bit ago.

“Everything okay?”

His arms were at his sides, as he confidently strode into your room, looking down at you as your attached your pouches and grapple. 

“Work? When will you be back?”

You shrugged. 

“If it all goes well, tomorrow morning. This is gonna be an all-nighter. I’m either going to have to kill someone, break in, or both! That would be fun, right?”

You laughed, reaching over instinctively and giving his arm a pat. He didn’t react to it like he would have before. He just kinda let you do it, which was fine for you. You could handle a little friendly contact.

“So, I’m assuming you’re trying to make some assassination plans as well? If you want, you can just go ahead as long as you are careful coming home. Hey, I even made you a key if you ever want to go through the front door. Cant always leave the window open. Birds like to come in and they shit on everything and whatever.”

“What did you see?”

And there it is.

“Nothing much, just something about a factory and some pictures of other robots.”

He tensed, but you could tell by his eyes that he didn’t buy anything you just told him. As a matter of fact, he made it very clear that he was aware that you knew a lot more than you should about him.

“You…”

His voice was deep, gravely, one word making you want to hear him speak more.

“Me?”

He reached out to you, grabbing your wrist, the same wrist as always. It felt sore in his hold, but not because he was squeezing, he was surprisingly gentle.

“What did you see? You’re looking at me differently.”

You slipped out of his hold, his metal fingers making your skin tingle. Why did you pull away? You wanted him to touch you. You would have killed for it earlier.

“I’m looking at you differently for a lot of different reasons. If you are up to talking, we can discuss it when I get back from this job.”

He seemed to agree and watched you walk by him to head out. You didn’t think anyone would question all of the leather, after all, how could someone who seemingly stays home or goes on long vacations, be making so much money. The thought makes you chuckle evilly. 

Just kidding! You wore a freaking coat! As if you could be seen in public with that, ha-ha, nah, you wouldn’t dare. The only thing that made you look like a high class whore were those nice heels, which, you had trained in them so you could look fabulous, uhuh. Did you about break your ankles more than you could count on your fingers? Yeah, but was it worth it to do hardcore parkour in these fancy things? Hecken yes. 

Taxi! Mmm, yes, hopefully it was your favorite driver… Aw, nuts… It was a stranger. Well, you flip a coin and it doesn’t always land on heads, does it? Unless you’re a tails kinda person, which, you know, ha-ha, no fourth wall breaks here.

God you wanted some noodles…

Maybe Revenant was right, your diet sucked ass. You needed to start eating healthier for your own sake. Jesus. You didn’t really eat much today. You were probably going to be starving halfway through this mission. You’ve pulled all-nighters before without snacking. The adrenaline keeps you going most of the time, but under normal circumstances, you get to eat before you leave. Shit…

……  
…..

……

He lurked outside the man’s home. He had followed him under the cover of night, watching him laugh with a co-worker on the phone about not having to worry about anything. Oh, he’s going to be worried about something to night. No doubt about it. 

His vision zoomed and focused on the man, confirming his identity once more and pulling up information on him. You had given him these names because they were a connected to the simulacrum project. How sweet. You knew exactly what he wanted, though he may have wanted to save the best for last, leave these fuckers scared til it was their turn, but where’s the fun in that? 

He couldn’t wait to get his fingers under their skin. Almost as much as he couldn’t wait to get his fingers under your clothes… 

Why did that just pop up in his programming?  
He couldn’t understand a lot of what was popping up in his “thoughts” or why he had been acting like a skinsuit in heat. 

He supposed it was some sick attraction to the mess of a woman he lived with now. As if he needed to have any relationship. He was a fucking machine. No one should be attracted to him. He should be feared. You weren't looking at him like that, though. No matter what he does in front of you, to you, you always looks at him with kindness and sympathy. 

He hated it, but couldn’t help himself but to revel in it. Bask in it. He would have pressed himself against you if he didn’t fear the consequences of afterwards. Fear… 

Foolishness. 

It shouldn't be in him to feel fear. He thought that he wasn’t supposed to care after all. He’d rather be alone… would he?

Fuck. 

Catching feelings for a Meat sack was going to get him into a lot of trouble. He was already miserable. If she were to die, what then? He was already looking for a way to make it end for good. What would her death do? 

Make him want to look faster? 

That just pisses him off. Fucking focus, simulacrum. There’s work to do, right in front of you. He's entering his house. 

Research says that he’s got a wife and two beautiful girls. It’s a shame that they’ll grow up without a daddy, but then again, if only they knew about the kind of monsters he made.

He crawled though the shadows after him, quickly, avoiding the visions of nearby cameras. He wasn’t normally paranoid about cameras until he met you. No one could find him, so cameras weren’t a concern. Living in the city, though, made it a concern. All of these high ranking people would fall and they would track every camera back to her home and then what? 

She gets arrested? 

Before, he really wouldn’t have cared, but for now, he needed her out of bars to be of any use. 

One of his windows were conveniently unlocked. He would just slip inside and wait for someone to enter. Normally he plans better than this, but this made him feel so much more alive. It was exhilarating, the feeling of not knowing what was going to happen. What was the problem if he failed? What were they going to do? 

Kill him? They couldn’t. 

They were weak little bags of flesh and even with guns, didn’t stand a chance against him. 

“Goodnight, dad!” he heard the footsteps come up to the door. There were two of them. The wife was with him. Heh. Shame.

He could hear the creak of the door and their chattering, discussing work and what to make the kids for breakfast. 

“Honey, aren’t you worried?” 

The wife sounded a little shaken. All because if him? He was honored. So many people in fear of him… Good. He wanted Hammond to quake in fear. He wanted them all to be pissing themselves…

“No, my love, not at all. Why would it come after me? There are so many others above me on rank that it wouldn’t do it much good to get me next. I mean… I am designing the new one, but as far as we know, that’s not why it’s picking us off.” 

New one?

“You should still be more careful! You're still involved in it… please… for me?” 

He pulled her in for a hug.

“Aww, sweetie, it’s going to be fine. Tell you what, after we build this thing and get it sent out, we will go out and get a new place far away from here. We'll take the kids and be so far out of the way, it wouldn’t even make the effort.” 

She shook her head. Oh, she didn’t like the idea. Doesn’t matter. They’ll both be taking a dirt nap soon, right after he talks more about this new one.

“So did you find a subject for the core?” 

Subject for a core?

“Yes! She was a young soldier shipped back in due to her critical injuries. We have pronounced her as dead to her family and we are going to be using her. They are taking her necessary parts as we speak.” 

What? 

He knew he had a core. He knew he had something, somewhere, that was keeping him from completely disappearing, but…

They were killing an innocent soldier to take their mind? They were going to tear up that woman just like they did to him and he showed no remorse for it. He was excited about this young woman being decapitated. 

And he was a monster…? 

Like that, he jumped out of the closet, grabbing the man and slamming him down into the floor. The wife tried to aim a gun at him, but he grabbed it along with her hand and twisted sharply, hearing the delicious crack. She tried to scream, but he punched her across the face, knocking her out cold and probably killing her instantly. 

The man watched in agony as his wife crumpled to the floor like a bag of groceries. 

“Marie…?” 

“You shouldn’t be worried about Marie, right now…” 

He covered his mouth, to quiet his screams as he pushed his hand under the skin of his arm and loved the sounds of his desperate, muffled screams for help. 

“Beg for your life, it’s so good to hear it. It won’t help, you, but keep screaming. Only I want to hear it for now… tryin' to keep quiet…”

He whimpered and cried until he tore that skin off of him like ripping paper out of s notebook. He flailed and writhed desperately, trying anything to get out of his hold. 

“Easy, easy… Where’s this other simulacrum? Has it already been uploaded?” 

He shook his head.

Not gonna say anything? That’s fine. He knew exactly what to do to make him change his mind. 

Metal fingers lengthened, sharpening into claws and stabbed into the muscle of his arm, his other hand, cutting into the skin of his wet cheeks. 

He just screamed louder under his hold. Nothing made him feel more alive than this. Nothing. 

You flashed into his mind for a moment, but the blood and agony took over quickly, sedating him with a sort of high. He peeled the man’s skin back to his wrist, seeing that he had a device around it.. 

“You got goods on that thing? Why don’t you give them to me?” The man shook in Revenant's hold. He looked like he was going into shock or having a seizure. 

Not going to talk. Oh well.

He snapped his neck and bashed his head in with a sick splatter and left, but not before snatching the device from his arm. He wasn’t going to let that thing be made. 

There’s only one simulacrum roaming right now and it’s him. 

That’s going to fucking stay that way.


	7. Caught up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That would be telling ;)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all, seriously for all of the support! 
> 
> I have a tumblr blog called therevenantspeaks if anyone wants to follow for cool revenant content!   
> I post stories there and take requests for writing as well as art! 
> 
> Dont forget to kudos, comment, and obey ♡
> 
> Your words feed the beast!

Forgive me father, for I have sinned. You have sinned a lot. The mission was messy. A lot messier than you thought it would be considering all of the careful planning you had put into it. It should have been as simple as usual. Get in, do your job, and get out.   
Nowhere in that simple plan did it involve you getting shot again and hitting your head against, guess what? 

More glass. 

You just couldn’t seem to get enough of that shit. It was everywhere, glittering in the neon advertisement lights outside of those ritzy corporate buildings. It was in the early hours of the morning. The sun hadn’t even rose yet and the dark still conquered, giving you ample time to hide and stay undercover. Your whole body ached as you dragged yourself through the shattered door. Yes. Yes, it was made of glass. It made that creak and crunch that you would expect a glass door to make. 

You felt the hot fluid run down your back. Hopefully they didn’t hit anything important. You knew a bullet grazed the back of your shoulder, but there was a sharp pain in your abdomen that you couldn’t figure out. To be honest, you should have looked at your stomach to check how bad it was. 

Still on your feet, albeit barely holding on to what little strength you had left after that firefight. Here you were though, trucking it. Weren't going to back down anytime soon now. You had to make it home. 

Stop. Wait a minute. There were voices. More of them? 

How much more of this could you take? The injuries were a bit much this go round, so an elaborate and flashy escape was out of the question. The equipment these guys possessed was unknown, but you knew they were security. They had to have some devices to track intruders other than cameras. This was going to suck for you. How in the hell were you gonna get out of there? 

You found a nearby desk and climbed underneath it, your shoulder was on fire in the position, but you knew that if you didn’t make a better attempt to hide than simply being under the desk, they were going to find you. 

“This way! Gunfire came from here!”

They were coming. Eyes squeezed shut and you grit your teeth to the sounds of blood dripping. The blood dripping… they would see it. You were royally fucked. 

“This is a mess…”

“Yeah… Find them… they can’t have gone far. That blood wasn’t his.” 

Your eyes threatened to tear up as you heard them walk around the room.   
It couldn’t end like this. Everything you’ve done, how hard you worked… it was all going to be for nothing if they caught you. 

The blood started to make your fingers slip from their hold under the desk, so you readjusted your grip, flinching at the sounds it made. The guards stopped moving. 

You held your breath. 

Did they know? Did they know where you were? 

Footsteps crept towards you. A small sound as simple as that and that small trail of blood leading your way and they were going to tear you out from underneath your hiding place. 

Aside from your frantic heartbeat and tears, you kept a calm composure, calming your breathing, and focusing on the sounds of those shiny black shoes getting closer and closer. 

Your eyes glanced to the other side of the desk at the sound of pants scuffing. It was the other guard. Somehow he managed to creep around and catch you off guard while you listened to the other guys steps. 

You couldn’t even scream as you were pulled violently out from underneath the desk. As you were pulled out, your injured shoulder slammed into the bottom of the desk. The pain was so agonizing you couldn’t even fight their grip. Your whole body locked up, your mouth locked into a shocked, silent scream of pain. 

“You little bitch, come here!”

What was the point of saying that? You might as well have been cooperating with how busted up you were, but they insisted upon trash talk it seemed. Whatever.   
The light began to dim as your consciousness wavered. Were you scared? Maybe a little bit. As you faded, however, you couldn’t think about fearing for your own life. 

You thought about Revenant. 

Was he going to wonder where you were? Would he go looking for You? He wouldn’t care to look for you. That’s silly. You wished you could feel those fingers against your skin one last time. 

Shit. You weren't going to deny it anymore. You liked him and you were going to take it to your fucking grave with you. You loved that man. Yes, a man. 

After all, that’s what he was under all that metal. He was only the broken consciousness of a man, lost in this world that took everything from him. Nothing but warmth welled up inside of you at the though of him patching up your wounds or pressing his body against you. 

If you were going to die. You were going to think about what made you happy. 

….

….

…

It was dark when your eyes creaked open. It was pitch black and you were tied to a table, laying flat on your back. Your shoulder was still in massive amounts of pain as well as your stomach, but you could feel that something was wrapped around it. You must have been shot there too and didn’t realize it right away. Adrenaline was a fickle thing. You felt your shoulder trying to set itself in fire, but your stomach? That didn’t feel like a gunshot wound pain. 

Damn. 

Where in the hell were you and why were you alive? Those motherfuckers should’ve killed you, right? You killed their boss. Why did they bring you in alive? Justice? Nah. That wasn’t Hammond. That wasn’t what you were involved in. 

The man you were sent after for this job was a dangerous asset to Hammond. He funded many projects as well as touched on the Simulacra. His filthy money helped pay for this research. It was only fair that he fell. That’s why you were so excited to take this mission since, in a way, you were crossing off another name on Revenant's list. You just didn’t think you were going to fail so easily. 

How were you going to get out of this one? Seriously. How? You had no tools at your disposal to cut these binds and your wounds were too much to struggle with. 

If there was some way you could contact-   
No. He’d abandon you. No room for failures, right? 

Fuck…

Revenant had no idea. Even if you had a way to contact him, you aren’t too sure he would help.   
Your eyes began to close involuntarily. Wait… an IV? 

You were being drugged… no… wait… Rev…

…

…

…

Revenant sat perched outside the monument of a building that was said to contain the new Simulacrum project. Funny. He had been to this building already. You were with him. He started to think about your funny reaction to one of the cameras and wondered if that’s what you saw. He wondered if that’s why you kept it quiet, so he wouldn’t go on a rampage like he was about to do now. 

Those fuckers better hope people come help in time, because everyone in that building was about to die.   
Everyone. 

He saw the plastic covering over the shattered glass and all of the caution tape. It was still a relatively fresh crime scene after all. They were really looking hard for him. Not that they were going to get anywhere. You had destroyed any sort of link to finding their location. It was quite useful. He wanted so badly to think that you were just as useless as any other skinbag, but with all of the help that you'd supplied him, whether it be repairs or names, you had gained some respect from him. 

You cared. His knee jerk reaction would be to push that shit away. He didn’t need that nor did he need you fussing over him, cleaning his mess, touching him so gently as if he could break. He didn’t need you standing there with tears in your eyes, looking at him like he was your whole world. It was so obvious that there was something between the two of you. It sparked and sparked hot, not quite becoming a flame. Every little thing you did for him though, kindled that spark. Maybe it was something more already since he felt an odd pang of worry. 

You were meat like the others. You could be killed like they could. 

He was worried. He was actually worried about you. Yeah. He couldn’t quite believe it himself, but you know full well from what has been told so far that he’ll deny it up and down. Luckily, the storyteller knows exactly what he’s feeling and can spill all of those juicy little secrets. 

Like the anxiety that built in that supposedly empty chest cavity or armor plate to be specific.   
He jumped from the edge of the building to land as gracefully as before on the side of the Hammond tower. Smashing through the glass wouldn’t be very smart this time around since the place was so heavily guarded. He'd jump in and quickly be turned into a bullet pin cushion. 

He’d like to think he was completely immortal, but even metal can be damaged and he didn’t want to disappear.   
It wouldn’t take much for him to just wake up in another body, but there was no telling what memories he would keep or lose til he could find them again, or whether or not his mind would fall apart any more than it already had. 

After all, he could only be copied so many more times before he loses himself completely. 

The turrets were still down, thankfully. Whoever your friend was, had to be good at their job if they couldn’t fix them since their last break in. That code had to be some fucked up business. 

Entry was just as easy, but he could hear all of the people skulking around, talking about imminent vacations and family. They talked about the men that died or the machine that shot them up. Hehhhh. 

Quickly and quietly. 

He moved through that building like a ghost tearing through people by that same motto. A simple crack and a muffled gasp; one right after the other. It was a steady beat of music in his ears. 

Fucking sucks… 

You didn’t have your handy tablet with him to find what room that was. He tried to flip through his memory of that day, finding a screenshot and trying to zoom in, but the image on the camera was fuzzy as was the room number and the image. All he could see was a spot of blue in the dark grey room. 

Son of a bitch. What room was it? He could only kill his way through so much before getting caught. Not that they’d see him. 

They’d find the bodies. 

He moved like a cat with swift steps that were almost silent, scoped the room out like a bird with sharp quick turns of his head. No one saw him coming. 

This had probably been the most he’s killed by his own hand in one day. Most of his attacks were brutal and savage, but the quiet route was the best to take in this particular situation. He didn’t want to alert them to his presence and have them ship the project out before he could kill his way through the human fodder to it.  
It was a struggle to search through the halls for his destination. 

Shiiiiiit… He hates asking for directions.

He crawled toward a guard, silent, not even the creak of metal could be heard. There was only a shuffle of feet and the sound of dragging as Revenant pulled him away into another room.

“Listen real carefully, skin suit… Normally, I like hearing people scream, but this time… if you make one peep, I’m going to snap your neck like a fucking twig. Want to know what else I’m going to do? I’m going to leave you on your wife’s doorstep and ring the bell. I’m going to savor every second of her grief…”

Revenant chuckled as he moved his hand and was satisfied to only hear labored breathing and a shaky response.

“What do you want? What do you want from me!?”

He shook violently in his hold, like a leaf in a hurricane… just barely holding on.

“Cooperative… I like that.”

Revenant grabbed his face and forced him to look deep into his yellow eyes.

“I want you to tell me where the project is. The one everyone’s been so excited about. I’ve got to pay it a little visit.”

He began to cry. Heh, seems like he doesn’t know. It’s a shame to have to jog his memory.

He gripped the man’s wrist and squeezed, not quite breaking anything, but enough to leave a nasty bruise. He would’ve just crushed his wrist, but something compelled him not to. He had done this too many times to a certain someone… it doesn’t matter. He just didn’t want to. He knew why, though, remembering your lips pulled back, teeth gritting, and jaw tense as he held your arm the same way as he was currently holding this man’s. His hold on you then was tighter.

“I- I- I don’t know! I swear, I don’t! I just guard the offices! Under ground! Lower floors have more guards! Like, twenty for each floor!”

Revenant sure appreciated how helpful he was being. He’d reward this one. Normally he didn’t spare anyone, but this one will live.

“Which floor has the most?”

He looked up for a moment, probably thinking.

“Underground level F. There’s about twenty two. Not many more, but two more is still most out of every other. Please, that’s all I know… I wanna see my wife… please…”

Revenant pulled out his pistol and knocked him over the head. It would probably lead to a nasty concussion, but he’d live by the way his vitals looked. He was just a brat. As much as he’d like to see all of them burn, he really only wanted the ones with the power, the ones who acted out these monstrosities. These grunts being paid to be brawn weren’t worth his time if they   
cooperated.   
To Level F, then. He couldn’t wait to make their acquaintance.

…

…

…

Your eyes opened again.

What in the fuck was happening? The room was dark, but bright lights over your table, burning your eyes and making it damn near impossible to see anything else around you.

You couldn’t form words. You grunted and groaned to try to say something, ask where you were, tell them to fuck themselves, but nothing came out. You shifted you wrists, feeling the binds still tight around them, chaffing the skin. 

“Finally up, my hummingbird? You get away so fast, it seems like no one sees you. This time, however…”

The old man leaned over your table, in between your face and the light. It was dark, so you still could not make out any of his features. Just black shadows and bright, white light.

“The hummingbird has gotten caught. You will be more useful than our other choice ever could have been. Not that it matters, it would appear as though our dearest soldier’s brain was damaged in the extraction, so now…"

He stepped around the table, circling you like a predator to their prey.

“We are in need of a new core. Congratulations! I must say, after several scans and background on your person, you are appointed the new core! Its not every day that someone gets such an honor!”

He flicked up his hand and suddenly the lights came on, revealing many other people in lab uniforms, masks, gloves…. The doctor stood above you, a crazed look in his eye and a warm smile that, you knew by every means, was fake. Your heart beat harder and you could tell because you heard the beeps quicken on the monitors. The other assistants looked nervous, some without any emotion at all. You still couldn’t talk. 

They must have drugged you.

You were going to be cut apart and were not going to get any last words. What in the hell… 

You thought about your mom as you looked up at the machine that you could definitely tell was some sort of laser device. That thing was going to cut your head open. It reminded you of when you were small and your mother took you to the dentist office. You used to be so scared of that big light over your head, clinging to your mother’s hand while she cooed at you that everything was alright. You clenched your hand, trying to remember what hers felt like, but it wasn’t the same and that mans voice voided any attempt to hear your mom’s voice within the crowd of hushed whispers.

“You have already been cleaned, inside out. It makes things easier for us. Don’t want a mess after the process is complete. We looked for any family you might have, so that we can send our condolences, but it seems that you do not have anyone left. What a shame, what a shame… but! That makes it easier for us. Less clean up. Less work.”

Your hand felt wet. You couldn’t feel the pain. Your fingernails must have bitten too deep into your skin. 

You didn’t want to die here. Your thoughts screamed it into your skull over an over, but there just didn’t seem to be any hope. Who was going to find you here? You didn’t even know where you were and what was worse, your own organization was going to disown you for your failure. 

“Sir, they want to speak with you.”

One of the nurses spoke, bringing you from your trance and your attention to the bright hallway. There was an exit. You were usually so quick on your feet to think of escape routes, but the drugs were making it difficult to function at all aside from flashbacks to your childhood and silent cries for help.

Come on, you good for nothing brain!

He scoffed and excused himself, telling the assistants to get prepared and leave you thirty minutes to prepare for the procedure.

“We’ll give her some time to think about… life! After all, it is a beautiful thing and she is going to experience life like she has never experienced it in this one.”

He was gone and everyone stepped out, leaving you alone. 

EXCELLENT! Or, wait… You were alone to plot and that was a success, but you were drugged, tied, and the only thing you knew of was the exit.

You struggled to just turn your head to look at all of the computer monitors that surrounded you. Desks and chairs where you assumed assistants would monitor the procedure. You hands shook, looking desperately for anything that could possibly help you, but no matter how hard you squinted or tried to focus your vision, you couldn’t see a damn thing in that room that was close enough to assist your escape. 

Your wrists shifted, trying to loosen anything, but with how it was tied, your odds of that working were not good. Fuck. It took you this long to realize that the ties around your ankles weren’t straps or rope, they were metal. Your legs were locked to the fucking table.

“Ah!” 

You cried out as you lifted your head to look down at your legs, but your head was too heavy and just dropped back onto the table. 

Your brother smiled up at you, holding your hand as you both walked into the bank with your mother. 

“Hey, you think they have the cherry suckers! Those are my favorite! Mommy always gets me those!”

You gave his small hand a gentle squeeze, “Yeah! I think they do! I like the orange ones, though!”

He smiled and looked at the lady at the counter, telling you that he liked orange too.

Even through the fear, you still smiled. You smiled into that bright light, remembering his bright eyes and that warm smile.

Gunshots.

Gunshots tore through the room, the wall chipping and dry wall sprinkling the floor. A woman’s scream could be heard and it was your mother pulling you to the floor, you held your brother’s hand, but he pulled away from you to run, his crying was all you could hear over the shouting. 

Gunshots.

The crying stopped. 

The assistants were back around you again, tools in hand, mask over your face. The drugs were making you fade again. 

All you could see after was what you saw all of those years ago. His body on the ground, blood pooling out from under him and his scared eyes looking back at you as your mother held you low to the floor, her whole body shaking. 

You faded into black and all you could think about was   
how it was all your fault. If you had just held his hand tighter. If you had pulled him closer instead of letting him slip away, he may have still been alive. 

Tears slipped down your cheek, mourning.   
Not for your own life. Not yours.

For your brother.

For Revenant, wherever he was.

…

…

…

He peaked through the vent into one of the rooms. Was this it? 

He dropped in through the vent, careful not to make a sound as he did a quick scope of the room and found a sleek, blue robot propped up and kept behind a glass barrier. This must have been it. It looked to be made of a resilient metal with shiny blue armor over the chest, arms, and around the legs and thighs. The appearance of the machine looked very feminine. He would agree that it was well designed, but was more concerned about whether or not it was finished than how it looked. 

With a quick scan, he found that it was in fact not active. It had no consciousness uploaded yet, but something scared him. It said near its activity that its progress was pending. That could mean anything, but normally it would just say inactive and leave it at that. If it were pending, it means that progress on the consciousness was current and was in the process of beginning to upload. 

They had a core somewhere and they were going to upload it. He wasn’t going to let that happen. 

There was still a long hallway to explore and something about that large, gray door had him curious.  
Sneaking his way down that hall, he saw some monitors outside the room. They hadn’t removed the parts yet. The person was still intact by the looks of it. 

He looked to the other screen and that had him freeze. 

That was no random soldier.

That was you.

The monitor showed a close up of your unconscious face, tears wetting your cheeks and a machine whirring above you.

They were going to make you like him!

He couldn’t help the roar that tore out of him as he hunched over, his whole body giving into the shadows and giving his body the freedom to storm in there and massacre anyone in his way.

It only lasted for thirty seconds. Thirty seconds would be all he needed to slaughter everyone in that room and then some.

He kicked open the door with such a force that it shot forward and crushed someone. People screamed and scattered, while a few tried to fend him off without success. Necks snapped, arms twisted and were even straight torn off. 

Bullets whizzed passed him, but he cared little about any of that.

He grabbed an old man in a lab coat and smashed his head into the floor, lifting him up and flinging his lifeless body at a few others that attempted to assist him.

As soon as he was positive everyone was gone, he tore the metal shackles from your legs, pulled the rope effortlessly from your wrists and as gently as he could,   
held you in his arms.

“It’s alright… I’ve got you. Its gonna be alright.”

He didn’t like coddling, but he did it for you without a second thought, knowing you were still under the influence of their drugs. It was mostly for his sake, so he could be sure that it was you in his arms and this wasn’t some sort of nightmare. 

Your soft skin against the metal of his body was enough of a wake up call to know you were real.  
You were alive and warm. You weren’t made into one of those things. You weren’t going to be like him.

He couldn’t bare that.

You seemed lifeless with how limp you were in his hold, but he could feel your vitals and knew you were okay.

The shadows were gone. His body back to the shiny red it was before and his mind clear. He was going to get you out of here. He wasn’t sure how just yet, but he would definitely get out. He had you propped up so that if he needed to shoot, he could let down your feet and fire, but for now, he held you bridal, walking fast towards the elevator. 

There were no guards on that short trip down the hallway. If he could get up to the top floor, he could grab you and climb out. You weren’t going to be conscious to hold on, which would be a problem for later, but he would figure something out.

It took a good minute or so, maybe more, to reach the top floor. A ding and the sliding of doors revealed several armed men holding guns, Revenant immediately moved to get you behind the wall, his back taking a few shots.

“YOU’RE ALL DEAD!” once again his body crackled into shadows, dropping you to the floor and jumping into the room, grabbing one of the men, twisting his head and kicking out at another. He could hear the bullets tear through him, making him roar in pain, but it didn’t stop him. He couldn’t stop, not while you were in danger.

His hand tore through the one with the assault rifle and Revenant flung him into the fall, his body breaking bones on impact and a splash of blood coating the wall before he fell to the floor all crumpled.

One shot to the head though had him disappearing into a cloud of black smoke. He was in the elevator again, the shadows freeing him from its grip.

“Shit…”

He looked down at your body, doubled over and in pain. 

He fucking dropped you…

He hid behind the elevator wall, foot holding the doors open so that it couldn’t move. He checked you over, seeing that you were fine, but your back had received a new abrasion from your fall. That was his fault.  
He hit the emergency stop button to hold the elevator there, stepping out once more, drawing his pistol. 

“This ends, right here.”

He stepped out, keeping close to cover, and shot two men in the head. Two clean and precise shots. 

There were two more, but they were hiding. That was a problem. He couldn’t waste time, but he couldn’t just pull you out of the elevator and risk you getting injured any more than you already were.   
He would have to leave you there for just a moment longer. 

He crouched down to your level and touched your cheek. Thumb caressing under your eye and wiping away the tears that had slipped down what looked to be recently. Was it because of the fall?

“Sorry…”

Gunshots flurried into the elevator wall where the two of you were. He didn’t hesitate to shield your body with his own.

“Damn it!”

As soon as he heard their clips empty, he emerged, grabbing one of them by the face and smashing it into the wall, breaking it open like a melon and the lunged for the other, punching his arm and savoring the snap and cries that followed. 

“OUT! OF! MY! WAY!” His fist hit the man’s face with sick meaty splashes until there was nothing but pulp under him.

“DAMN IT!” he shouted and roared, rage bubbling inside of him, threatening to boil over. Your voice, however, woke him from losing sight of the goal.

“Rev… let’s go… let’s go home, please…”  
He sprinted to you, sliding into the elevator and lifted you into his arms as carefully as he could.

“We’re going… Just stay with me. Cant have you die just yet…”

Your tired smile filled him with a bit of relief before your eyes shut again, leaving you to fall back into your drugged sleep.

“We’re going home… just hang in there for me.”

Scaling the wall downwards while carrying you was hard. However, he managed, jumping off and landing safely on another rooftop. Copters were coming from what he could hear, but they were far enough away, and on the other side of the building. He was reassured that they wouldn’t know where they were. 

Cameras were still probably up. He scanned the areas and did his best to avoid any camera he saw, though that was very difficult. He would manage. He always has.

After some time, and the light of the sun just barely peaking over the buildings, he had pulled open your window and crawled inside your apartment, pulling you inside and gently setting you on the floor.

Now that you both were safe, his took your face between his hands, looking you over for any injuries on your face, feeling horror as he just now noticed the bruise forming on your cheek and the bloody scratches on your forehead and jaw. Your top lip was split. He wanted to check over the rest of you, but was stuck holding you like this, your cheeks warm against his cold hands. Warm and alive. 

He couldn’t stop himself. This was so fucking weird…

He pulled you into a hug, holding you close to him.  
He couldn’t even remember the last time he hugged someone while he was alive, let alone as a machine. Something about you almost becoming like him, though… it was a lot. It gave him a lot of emotion that he couldn’t express or vent in any other way than to hold you and make sure you were still your soft, fleshy self.

He did tense when he felt your hands on his back, returning the embrace, but didn’t deny it. He didn’t move. He wasn’t going to let go of you any time soon.

“I thought… I was gonna die… I was gonna die, Rev… I’m scared…” he just listened to you ramble on, pain flooding every bit of programming that handled emotions and just rocked you, trying to ease your own pain in some way. 

“it’s alright… I’ve got you… I won’t let you die… cant let you die…”

You shook and shivered in his hold. It was just like so many other people he was sent to kill, looking the same way, shaking with fear. This time, though, he felt it. He felt genuine worry for you. He didn’t want to see you like this. 

“Rev, I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”

Your quiet cries became hysteric as he just held you through it, rocking you, talking to you, telling you everything was going to be fine.

He wasn’t good at this… what else was he supposed to do?

He held a hand against your cheek, pulling back just enough to press his forehead to yours. With that, you continued to shake, but less. His hands held your face, his long fingers combing through your hair as his thumbs caressed your cheeks like before, softly over your bruise.

“Shut up… it’s alright… it’s alright…”

This… this felt right to him.

Nothing had ever felt so right to him than this did right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone wants to add me on apex I'm on Xbox one!   
> ReaperThighz44! 
> 
> I'm not that great, but I do enjoy playing with friends! 
> 
> If you want to add me, I'm all up for it!!!


	8. The smell, the taste

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little low on the action and higher on the spice scale. Hope you guys like!
> 
> Don't hesitate to critique me if it sounds to repetitive in anyway or if it just doesn't sound right! I will do my best to fix it. 
> 
> <3 love you guys!

The sun was bright today, almost too bright. Your heart jumped in your chest at the thought of that room, but this felt too familiar and was definitely home. You had to really look at your walls and remember that this was home and that you were ok. That was honestly the strangest feeling, having to relive this again. You willed your breathing to calm, felt the blankets, smelled the air… it smelled like breakfast…

You didn’t want to get up, move, or even eat for that matter, but your dubious desire to move wasn’t what was on your mind.

Wait? Who in the hell could be cooking in your home?  
That was the only thing that prompted you to get up out of that bed and drag your sore ass into the hallway. You readied a pistol that had been placed on your dresser for… reasons… 

Rev’s door was closed, which wasn’t a surprise. You just couldn’t wrap your brain around it. There was no way in hell he was cooking for you. Did he even know how to cook? That’s absolutely insane. Maybe a friend came over or something. How would they know to come over? They wouldn’t know unless you told them…  
As far as you know, you haven’t called anyone over.  
Hell, you didn’t even know how long you were out.

You quietly stepped into the kitchen, not like there would be some kind of enemy in your kitchen cooking breakfast or whatever, but still, better to be safe than dead on your kitchen floor in your pajama shorts… however you changed into your pajama shorts…?

You heard the sizzling of grease in a pan and smelled that delicious aroma of bacon and wondered why you had never cooked any of that bacon up earlier. Even though your stomach wasn’t growling or had an appetite at all for that matter, your mouth still watered.  
That was probably your body screaming at you to feed it even though it was also screaming to not feed it. What in the hell do you want, you fucking stomach!!? First world problems. 

“You up?”

Holy fucking shit balls. Revenant was in your kitchen… cooking you bacon. Why in the blood soaked hell would he do that? If you had a robot brain in your head, it would probably be short circuiting, which left you with this dumbfounded expression on your face. 

“Don’t look at me like that, fucking skin suit. This isn’t ever happening again, so don’t think this’ll be a normal occurrence.”

You couldn’t move. No. This was some kind of trick, he would not be nice enough to make you breakfast. You were going to deny this up to your scratched up chin. You were not going to eat it. He was poisoning you! That’s what it was, hah! He thought he could finally get rid of you that way, since you were such a nuisance.  
Don’t be silly, you didn’t really believe that. 

“It’s been two days since… You gotta eat something. If you don’t then you’ll die. Cant have that, can we? Not when you’ve been so useful to me.”

You just waved a hand at him, brushing off such a foolish comment. You knew for a fact that there was no way that was why he was doing this. Maybe. After all, you really didn’t know why he did anything else outside of revenge and murder. Cooking? That was just an odd thing to see.

“How do you know how to cook. Just curious.”

He huffed, turning down the stove and scooting your bacon onto a plate. 

“My system has access to internet on a secure line. I can read up on how to cook anything.”

Of course. That sounds like a silly question. A computer having access to the internet. Who would have thought? You watched him slide the plate over to you and leaned against the table, his back to you.  
Scratches and holes littered the armor plating of his back. You apparently had been passed out for two days so you weren’t entirely sure how damaged he was in the act of saving you, but clearly he had taken some rough hits. Red paint was chipped and burned, worn gray and scratched in some places. Guilt flooded you. 

If you hadn’t gotten caught, this wouldn’t have happened to him. He seemed to read that pretty well as he scoffed and shook his head, some of the singed fabric catching on his joints and tugging it in a strange way.

“Stop sulking and eat the damn food. Shit happens, right? Well here. It happened. Get over it. You are here and alive. Be happy that you aren’t like me. Eat. At least you get to enjoy eating.”

Tears of course began to brim. The fuck. He gotta pull that victim card and he was so good at pulling it too, since he was in fact a victim. He risked his “life” for you. He didn’t have to do a damn thing for you and he did. On top of all of that, you could still hear him telling you that everything was going to be alright.

You weren’t hungry, but you put that bacon in your mouth. You had a mouth and a stomach. You shouldn’t be taking that for granted, not after you were almost made to be a simulacrum, doomed to walk the earth as a human mind trapped inside a machine. 

He tilted his head towards you just a little, watching you eat. You couldn’t tell what he was thinking, hell you couldn’t read an expression. Normally by just those little movements, you could get an idea, but now? 

Nothing. Your stomach finally growled viciously, realizing its frenzied hunger and your tearful nibbling turned to savagely shoving it into your mouth. The manners on you. Your father would be proud. Revenant? Maybe not so much since he was quick to leave the room. He was either satisfied that you were eating or was disgusted by you. Your guess leaned toward the latter so you swallowed quickly.

“Mmmph… sorry! That’s gross!”

You heard him shout, “You think!?” and your television clicking on. A laugh tumbled from your lips as finished off the last few pieces. He was really something. Weird, but something. Cut to his arms holding you tight while you wore nothing but a hospital gown. Something like that could be taken so sexual, but you couldn’t think of it that way. You remember how warm he was as he held you, how he initiated the hug, not you. He was scared for you? Something pushed him to hold you like that and for that moment, it felt pretty damn good. It felt good to finally have someone there for you. Maybe he needed someone there for him, too. You wondered for just a moment what he was watching, probably some crime show. 

Depositing your dish In the sink, you joined him on the couch to watch it with him, sitting on the opposite end, well more like laying down with your feet hanging off the arm of the couch and your head right beside Rev’s thigh. As uncomfortable as it looked, it was actually not too bad and didn’t put too much strain on your back. Damn. Rev could literally just shift his leg over and crack your skull, eh, who knows, that might be hot. You watched the show, listening to the detectives speak about the murders and how little to no evidence was left behind. This was a relatively old episode and it didn’t shock you at all when Rev piped up, “I remember that kill like it was yesterday…”

Of fucking course he would watch a murder coverage of his own fucking kill. The narcissism was booming.  
You snapped out of your critical thoughts when you felt something cold on your cheek. He was touching you where your bruise was. You froze, staring up at him. Scared? No, not scared, more like confused? His thumb ran over it so gently, you would think he was touching rice paper.

“Does it still hurt? Your face?”

His fingers moved up to stroke over the scratches on your forehead that were healing up nicely. You couldn’t help but sort of nuzzle into the touch, pressing your hot skin against the cool of his metal. They tensed, but never stopped their ministrations, running the backs of his fingers down your other cheek. 

“Its not so bad now… keep, uh… doing that. It feels really nice against the bruise, like an icepack…”

He pressed his hand to your bruised cheek and you held it to help guide it over the spot you needed it to touch. It probably looked odd, you sitting there, holding his hand and using it like a cool washcloth. As odd as this day was, you weren’t going to complain if it made you feel good. Boy did it feel amazing. 

“Don’t get used to this… I don’t coddle.”

You sighed dramatically and pressed your face to his hand, moving him so that the cooler part of his hand was on your face. It was like a pillow. Your face gradually warms that part up, so you have to adjust back to the cool. It was funny and it made you chuckle right after that dramatic sigh. So much for trying to put on the antics. 

“Yeah, but you’re coddling me now and I’ll take what I can get, my friend.”

He only responded with a grunt, but by the way his hand was cupping your face gently, you were pretty sure he was enjoying the contact just as much as you were. 

“I’m only babying you because of what happened, nothing more.”

Yeah, what happened was pretty fucked. You couldn’t remember most of it. What few flashes you could remember were of Revenant screaming over a bunch of dead bodies he maimed and then picking you up from the floor. You remembered bits of him carrying you home, being high in the air as he maneuvered over the rooftops. Pain. You remembered the intense pain of your shoulder and your back, but a lot of it was cloudy and you were sure you couldn’t move for most of it. That sucked and all, but you weren’t sure as to why that would be a valid reason for The Revenant, himself, to baby you. It really made you wonder if he really cared or if there was something more to this partnership. He either wants you or he wants something from you and you weren’t sure what that was. 

Off the records, you really hoped he wanted you.

“Sure then. Whatever… and uh,… thanks. I don’t think I’ve told you that. I really owe you one now. Here I thought I would get the chance to even the score, but you seemed to have doubled it against me.”

He finished listening to what the reporter said before replying nonchalantly, “As if you’d get the chance to save me. I don’t put myself in danger like you do.”

Should you say it? Yeah, you were going to say it.

“You did for me?”

Silence. Here. We. Go. 

He looked down at his legs, getting caught up in his thoughts as he does when these sorts of conversations happen. Two things could happen here. He will get up and walk away or he will confront you about your push of the subject with a snarky remark. He could also just kill you already, but you sincerely hoped that would be off the table by now.

“You saw that thing in there and you didn’t tell me.”

Shit. You did not see that coming. Now, you have some explaining to do.

“Ah, shit… um… you see, that thing was not the focus of the mission and I thought that it wouldn’t be that big of a deal, so-“

He looked at you now, “It’s not that big of a deal, huh? Did you ever think while looking at that “thing” that you could end up inside of it?”

No. No, you never thought that. You admired how pretty it was, worried over Rev finding out about it, and moved on. You didn’t pay it much mind at all.

“That was what they were going to put you in. They were going to plug you into that thing and take everything away from you. Normally, I wouldn’t give a fuck about skin suits dying, but this… this is personal. I’ll kill anyone who thinks they’re going to make another one of these “things” again! So get it through your head, meat sack. I didn’t do it for you.”

You stood from your seat, pulling away from his hand. How did he think you could forget how he held you? Or told you everything would be fine? How he frantically told you that you weren’t going to die here?  
You were calling out his bullshit.

“By the way you spoke, I didn’t think that it was entirely for this project. The things you said to me in there… you’re so full of shit!”

He rose from his seat as well, looming over you like before. He really loved playing the intimidation tactic, but after how many bullets he took for you, you didn’t think he would do anything to you.

“Watch your mouth, little girl… I just might have to break it…”

You countered back to him, getting closer to his face instead of backing away, “Go on then! Give it a shot. Take me out already, if I am such an annoyance to you.”

His hand grabbed for your jaw, catching you off guard; you really didn’t think he was going to touch you, but really this didn’t even hurt as much as you thought that it would. He just held you in place.

“Why do you insist on pushing me, skin suit? You just really want me to kill you?” 

No, you wanted him to tell you what this was, because there was no way in hell that it was what he said.

“No.”

That was all you could say after all of that? Wussy. Absolute wussy! There was so much you wanted from him, it wasn’t even funny! You wanted him to touch you, tell you that he cared. You wanted him to hold you in his arms again, just like before, but instead of you crying hysterically, you would be holding his face between your palms and telling him how perfect he was. That was just a dream, though, and the odds of that happening were zero to none. He didn’t see you that way and probably couldn’t have the capacity to, but you wished. Sweet Christ, you wished for that.  
He backed up, fingers freeing your face, body turning to walk away, probably back to his room where he would hide until you both forgot this whole thing or at least pretended to. 

“Wait!”

You cried out to him. Why did you call out to him? What could he possibly do for you, right now? You regretted it after you said it, not really knowing what you wanted or why you did it, so you just rolled with the first instinct thought to pop into your head. Some primal need that rose in you. Not the need you’re thinking although, I’m sure you are wishing it was.

“I don’t want to be alone… please… I… can’t…”

His eyes met yours, watching you for any sign of this being some weird game you were playing, but it really wasn’t. You really just didn’t want to be left alone. Those thoughts would come back again. You didn’t want to see. The expectation was for him to just shake it off and go to his room anyway, not wanting to deal with the drama that was your trauma, but instead his shoulders slackened and he sighed.

“Then help me with repairs. You’ll be of some use instead of getting on my nerves.”

Okay. That’s something. You’ll get to go into his room and chat with him about hot girls and how the frat parties go, beer, P2020s, and the sound a head makes when it goes splat. Couldn’t ask for a better time than that.

…

…

…

“This is a mess, now isn’t it. Idiot…”

Crypto worked tirelessly on his computer that day, wiping your devices the day you had sent him the signal of your failed mission. Your tech was set so that he could access it, giving him leisure to send you info or permanently wipe any data once the device had been compromised. It gave you some leg room to work and it gave Crypto one more thing to do. Your picture was in the media, but it was a bad one. Your hair was ruined, face bruised up and mostly hidden and your black, leather body suit left plenty to the imagination. He wiped as much as he could and was sure that you would be safe. They didn’t have any identification. It seemed that all they knew was that you were one of the agents that were involved with the recent killings of Hammond employees and associates. Something concerned him though. 

He knew what you had in your apartment. That’s why he sent that intel. That beast of a machine was a ticking time bomb waiting to go off and if it goes off… it will go. Off. 

He feared for your safety, but assumed that you would be fine. You were living with that thing for some reason and if you were sure that it was alright, he wasn’t going to intervene.

Well… maybe he wouldn’t have to.

He saw the camera footage of the lab, your body strapped to the table, that machine dropping in and massacring everyone in the whole room to save you. If it was protecting you, then maybe he didn’t have to worry about you one bit. Quite the ally to have…

He looked up to the photo of his sister, Mila. She had been missing for some time. He kept a straight face, but felt his heart clench at the thought of his own failure to protect her. There was nothing that he could do in this situation either. You were about to be killed and he could do nothing but watch the aftermath. If he had known it was happening, he would have made an attempt to intervene. Give you more time… set off an EMP to shut off the machinery. Anything. 

He stared at the screen, looking at that machine’s face as it held you close to it, carrying you out of there with a desperate speed to his step.

“I’ll keep better watch of you…”’

…

…

…

Rev sat comfortable on the bed, watching you work on patching him up, reconnecting damaged wiring or fixing any damaged joints. You told him that the plating was going need to be replaced, but that was obvious. 

He would also need a new coat of paint. It felt fucking weird to have to paint himself, but he would have to get used to it if he wanted to keep up appearances. He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but this was nice. 

It reminded him of going to get a haircut and having a very sensitive scalp, so anytime they brushed or touched that area, it gave him goosebumps. It was a lot like that in the way that he could savor every time you touched him. Whether you were just holding onto him for support or just simply holding his arm to check for joint damage. If he had skin, every hair would be raising and in the good way. 

“Something doesn’t feel right. On my back.”

You acknowledged him, moving to look closer at the aforementioned spot. You had made that humming sound, which he learned very soon meant that something was wrong. It was odd for you to be so good at fixing his body when you had never seen his model before. He found it impressive how quickly you picked up on how he moved, how parts worked, how they could malfunction, and how to repair them. He felt a pinch and then he felt a lot lighter. Like getting your back popped, but it’s not a spine, it’s a robotic structure made like a spine holding him together. 

“There. That was a tricky one. I guess a bullet knocked that bit out of place. Does it feel ok or does It need anymore adjustments?”

He only shook his head in reply. He felt fine and that was good enough, but now since he felt fine, it would be about time to kick you out of the room. Judging by your shaky hands, you must have known that too. 

“Get up here.” 

You looked at him all confused. Aww, skinsuit doesn’t know what’s going on?... hehhhh….

Little do you know, he has no idea either. You had been sleeping for two days. He doubted you wanted to sleep more. Maybe you could just lay down, rest your wounds and enjoy his company? Now that sounds ridiculous. He should just tell you to get out. That would be easier, anyway. It didn’t matter. He had already asked you to stay in a weird way.

“Um… are you sure? I- uh… I can go, if you want me to.”

He did, but he didn’t at the same time. These complicated feelings were always present when you were around. It would be so much easier to just hate you… so much easier to be disgusted by you… but he just wasn’t. He’s thought about this over and over, how much he enjoys you being close to him. 

“Shut up and get up here, skinsuit. I’m not patient.”

You laughed, another thing that perplexed him about you. He was… off putting. He knew that very well, that’s just how he was. He had a personality that tended to push people out, rather than in and in a way, he thought he had always had those tendencies, maybe even while he was still alive. You weren’t phased by any of it. It dragged you closer, made you smile. Oddly,… he liked that.

You grunted as you got to your feet and sat beside him on the bed. He didn’t care for the color blue all that much, leaning more toward the bright red, so the sheets were distasteful to him. He didn’t complain of course. A machine didn’t have the need for a bed, so why would he have reason to complain about what color the set on the bed was? It was foolish.

“Were you needing to talk to me or something?”

What could he possibly even talk about to you, aside from… what you saw…? That information. That was what they were going to discuss when they returned and well… that didn’t exactly work out as planned. That topic may be a little harsh to bring up, but it was something more relevant than talking about the weather. That’s always the kind of being he was. He wasn’t really one for small talk and would rather speak about what needed to be addressed. A little banter, of course, never hurt anyone, though.

“I want to talk to you about what your “friend” sent you. You said you were looking at me different for a lot of different reasons… start talking.”

You looked a little nervous about it, which he predicted would happen. That doesn’t mean he was backing down. No. He wanted to know.

“Start by telling me what you saw.” 

You had looked down to the floor, shoulders shaking slightly, which was odd, because you were normally the talkative one. 

“It was… it was awful. It…” 

He felt that pang of panic surge through his system. He had an idea of what you saw then. The head or… his head. It would horrify any person with such weak and empathetic emotions. When he had first learned about what had become of what’s left, he was just as horrified. He learned to get over it, but seeing that face that was once his own, in such a state was absolutely maddening.

“It was your head…” Tears fell frequent now, your body shook with sobs that you so desperately tried to hold back.

He couldn’t understand how you could lose yourself over seeing it. Anyone else would see it and think that it’s just a head and there was no point in thinking about who’s it was or what agony they could possibly be in, but you… you did. You cried for him. Under normal circumstances, of course, he would call this out for being pathetic, weak. But this time, he couldn’t think of you as such. It felt good to see you cry for him, to know that someone cared enough to. 

He rested a hand on your back. Damn. It was his head and he’s having to comfort you. He grunted at the thought, but deep inside, he also loved using this as an excuse to touch you.

His fingers moved in gentle circles, trying his best to console you.

“Factory thirty-two, all of those bodies, your fucking head…”

He wasn’t sure what to do. Before, he wanted to get angry. He wanted to destroy everything in the vicinity and who knows? Maybe he still did, but he didn’t feel mad, though. In fact, he felt calm. It was almost a new experience for him, him not being much of a talker when it came to feelings and problems.

“Yeah, its fucked up, isn’t it?” his fingers came up to touch his face. “That was the face that I used to see in the mirror. It wasn’t nearly as fucked up, though. Hair used to be blonde… from what I can remember, I was quite the spectacle, hehhehh…”

What in the fuck was he rambling about? Should he even be sharing that with you? Fuck, you were making him soft. How could he backtrack from here? Put up those walls after lowering them a little? 

“What-what color were your eyes?”

His head tilted a little out of habit. Why would you want to know that? It didn’t matter.

“Blue.”

Your lips pulled into a smile. A small one, but a smile nonetheless. God, did that do something to him. Something kept sparking inside of him to make you do that again. You sniffled, wiping your face with your sleeve.

“I always pictured them as the same color as your eyes now. Heh, blonde hair with gold eyes. The blue eyes would suit you more then.”

His fingers moved up to the back of your neck, sifting through your hair, cupping the side of your head. He couldn’t control himself. He just pulled you in closer, your head resting on the red shoulder plate and his arm snaking around your waist, pulling you into him.

He loved the feeling of your skin against him, feeling the warm softness of your body. He felt like he had to be so delicate with you, thinking about how easy it would be to just gut you like a fish, press his fingers a little harder and see that red blossom on the sheets. 

Not you, though. As often as he thought about it, he would never hurt you. At least, not intentionally.  
Every time he saw that bruise on your cheek, he felt guilt. Huh. He’s never really felt guilt before that. Well. There was always a first for everything, he supposed.

“This is nice.”

Your voice was quiet, soft, like you were. 

“Like I said, don’t expect this to be a regular thing.”

Your shoulders sagged a little, he would have sneered at you about it, but he would soon find out that his cold shoulder wasn’t what you were distraught about.

“Are you trying to find it?”

Like before, he knew what you were talking about.

“And if I am?”

Your arm wrapped around him, gripping a red belt on his chest and holding him close. That just wasn’t good, was it? Was it really just that easy for you to read him like an open book? With how little he told you, you knew immediately what he wanted. 

After he had his revenge, he wanted to find it. He wanted to find it and finally end his everlasting nightmare. The only thing that kept that desire at bay, was revenge. Revenge and some strange way, you. 

He expected you to say something, tell him not to, but you didn’t. You just held him and stayed quiet. For his sake, it was better for you to not say anything.

“Was that it? That’s what’s got you acting so different?”

Silence. 

“Do you pity me?”

Your grip on the belt tightened, your shoulders began to shake once more.

Without thinking, his fingers tightened around your waist.

“Do you?...”

You had finally met his eyes. Red and tired, they looked desperate. 

It was just instinct. His face grew closer and closer to yours. Yours grew closer and closer to his. 

Fuck, he wanted you. He could feel arousal flooding through him, wanting to touch you, wanting to feel you beneath him. He growled as you pressed your forehead to his, looking deep into his eyes. Would you look at that…

You wanted this too… he could fucking smell it, the desire radiating off of you. 

Ringing. 

Son of a fucking bitch. 

You had pulled away to answer your device, speaking to your boss. You gave him that look. The one that says “I have to go” and left him alone in his room with the click of the door. 

He let out a sigh, leaning over and covering his face with his hands.

“What in the hell am I doing?”

…

…

…

“Yes, Frederick. Yeah, technically the mission was a success, although my capture was not in the plan.”  
He scolded you; to be expected. You just smiled, happy to hear his voice, happy to be alive. 

“I’m sorry, sir. I’ve already got someone on that. It shouldn’t be a concern anymore. I trust him with my life when it comes to tech.” 

“Doesn’t matter. I don’t know what trouble you’re getting yourself into, but I suggest you stay out of it. If it is going to continue this streak of ineptitude…”

You shook your head, “Sir, you won’t need to worry about that. I’m almost recovered and ready for another one. I will hit my quota and be successful next time.”  
He didn’t buy it, but he took it for now, accepting your answer and telling you to pick up your next assignment tomorrow, hanging up and leaving you staring out your window.

Your lip quivered as you thought about what Frederick had oh so rudely interrupted. What in the hell was about to happen between the two of you? Revenant’s fingers pressed so deliciously into your skin, pulling you to him, you watched him get closer to you, almost connecting your lips.

You knew he didn’t have lips, but that didn’t stop you from wanting a taste. There was no way you could go back in there. What would you say if you did? “Yeah, hey, I’m here for you to continue what we were doing earlier with the hopes that you would ravage me until there is nothing left? Please?” Yeah, its not happening. 

You could not even force yourself to nurture the idea.

Your mind wandered off somewhere else instead, remembering Revenant’s words from earlier, about that machine. Did he destroy it? Even if he did, they’d still have the knowledge to make a new one, so does that mean that there could be more? Would they be like Rev or would they be more violent? 

Hell… you had almost become one. You couldn’t even comprehend everything you would have lost that night if Revenant had not saved you. Trying to imagine not being able to control your own body, not even know that it wasn’t your body, or finding out that it wasn’t and living with that for the rest of your existence. It was a nasty habit to cover your mouth while trying to hold yourself together. Your emotions were a rollercoaster of hormones and existential crisis ever since you met him.

Would change anything that day at the Hammond facility? No. No, you would not. You would offer him a place to stay every time. You would welcome this pain with open arms if that meant you could be close to him, try to heal some of those wounds he carried. He didn’t need you to fix him and you knew that. You didn’t want to fix him. You wanted to make things easier so, hopefully, he could fix himself. 

All you wanted was for him to find some shred of happiness. Was that selfish? Maybe a little bit. You felt that maybe you wanted him to be happy as a way to make up for the fact that you were hurting. Making people smile… it was always the best way to cope with things for you. 

Always the comedian. Too bad the comedian could never laugh at their own jokes. You would try to, though. Everyone had a bit of pride in them and you thought you were pretty damn funny. 

The sound of your feet on the carpeted floor echoed off of the walls in your hallway. Your heart swam in agony. How do you fix that? Video games. The living room called you.

…

…

…

Revenant leaned back in his bed, his lids low. He stroked his cock slowly, thinking about your body against his, thinking about what it would feel like to be inside of you… 

He inhaled deeply, thinking about your smell. He could fucking smell how wet you were by just that simple interaction. The fucking fool of a human… 

His fingers traced the underside of the head of his cock, it was new after all and he was still getting to know it. Simulacrum were given the ability to simulate emotion, simulate pleasure, pain. They were given the option for an attachment to enhance the illusion of “feeling human.” He as an assassin, wasn’t given an attachment per say, but was made to be more sensitive in erogenous zones with the possibility of adding an attachment later. He was only the beginning of their experimentation after all. It’s only natural that he be the guinea pig. 

As he had thought about earlier, yes, it was a new attachment. It was what was in the box he sent for you to retrieve. It was a small thing. One step closer to feeling normal, he supposed. Something about this lewd act made him feel more normal than he had in awhile and that’s including all of the “wonderful” moments he spent with you. You know, the ones that pulled him back down to earth, the ones that made him want to protect rather than kill. 

Stroking his hand over his brand new cock, sent sparks, flashes of memory back to a time where he felt like he was on fire, burning with a need to touch himself and that echoed the feeling he had now. He could hear the soft grind of metal as he ran his skeletal fingers down his “chest,” catching on the red belts, but slipping over them. He was thankful he could feel everything, knowing that every time touched himself, it sent fire through his programming, focusing on his cock. 

He was hard. He was sooooo fucking hard. This was his first time using it, so of course all of this feeling would get to him too quickly. He'd probably cum quickly too.

He thought about your thighs and how they would look spread out in his lap. How would your ass look if he decided to take your sopping hole from behind, your weak, shaky voice begging desperately for his load. 

“I’ll give it to you skinsuit…. Ill fucking give it to you… fill you up real good… fill you up and make you mine… that’s a good bitch…” 

His hips lurched as he felt his climax coming hard, all of the fire, the pressure, coming to a focus in his cock before exploding through out his body.

“That’s it,” he groaned out quietly, “take my cum, skin bag… fucking take it all… Yesssss…”

He shook and twitched as his high started to fade, still gently stroking his cock after it spurted line after line of cum over the gray metal of his chest and the black leather of his small waist. 

He used the edge of the blue blanket to wipe the fake cum off of his chest, making sure to clean anywhere else it happened to splash. 

He was so quick to attach it and start jerking it that he really didn’t get the chance to really look at it. 

It was a hybrid one, made from silicone and metal, able to hook to his system to help enhance the pleasure of erogenous zones, as well as the new attachment. The silicone was a dark red and the metal was grey to match his chest plate. He thought overall it looked awesome, matching his color scheme perfectly. 

Would you like it? Would it make you feel good? Well… maybe one day he’ll find out. 

It was hard to say, since he wasn’t sure how you felt exactly, but he knew. He knew how you felt about it  
down there, though. 

A chuckle vibrated through him at the thought at that smell. 

He couldn’t wait to smell it again.


	9. Something worth living for

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ;)
> 
> So you may have... overheard something...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: below.

Your heart stopped, watching the enemy character teabag your corpse. Now don’t assume this downfall was strictly your doing. You had simply ceased all movement, the controller almost slipping from your hands. Now… why in the hell were you in this predicament? Well, it all started when… you heard some peculiar sounds coming from Revenant’s room. It all started with the sound of metal scratching together and odd sounds that almost sounded like panting. Was he ok? You were sure he was fine, but it still worried you. Your first thought was that maybe he was sick, but that had to be the dumbest thought possible since he was a fucking robot. 

Then, you heard it. 

“I’ll give it to you skinsuit…. Ill fucking give it to you… fill you up real good… fill you up and make you mine… that’s a good bitch…”

Oh… my god… 

That’s when you let the controller go, hearing a light thud as it hit the carpet, game completely forgotten. 

What in the fucking hell was he doing in there? 

You heard soft grunting, the bed creaking, and more of his gravely voice.

“That’s it… take my cum, skin bag… fucking take it all… yess….”

Warmth flooded your face as you imagined what he must have been doing in there and to put icing on the cake, you learned that he does indeed have the capacity to be aroused. The more you know… 

You stood up from your spot on the couch and looked back to that cursed hallway, staring directly at his door. 

You just listened to him jack off and you liked every second that you heard it. Every growl had you simply melting, wishing that you were the skin bag he was referring to. You wanted to barge into his room and tell him you wanted him, to take everything, to swallow you whole and leave nothing behind. There was no way you had the courage to do such a thing… all you could do was stand here and listen, desperate to hear more even though you were certain he had already finished. 

All of this sexual tension had you worked up and you wished for nothing more than to take care of it, but how? There was hardly any time and what little time you had, like this... he was here. He could just up and decide to barge into your room at any given moment and leave you vulnerable and in he throws of pleasure… god you really wanted that… Maybe you would have time to take care of this tonight. You were very certain that you knew exactly what you were going to be thinking about… that deep voice, coaxing you into cumming, calling you all sorts of names describing your fleshiness… telling you how you were such a good little slut for him…

Your trance was broke by a sound on your communicator… What? 

It was a message from an unknown origin. It asked you if you wanted to view it and of course you opened it, because why not? Let’s see what they had to say.

*I KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE. I’M GOING TO TAKE IT FROM YOU.*

Well. You knew exactly who that was. This was happening. She was looking for the head. You hoped to god that she didn’t make it. 

Your heart was riding the rollercoaster and it went from aroused to downright scared pretty fucking quickly.   
You were tempted to reply, but didn’t, finding it easier to just move on. You weren’t going to waste your time fighting with that woman about what she wanted. You saw a symbol at the bottom of the message. A wolf, huh. Pretty cool. 

You closed out the message and called up your goodest friend, Crypto, hoping that he could help you with this, since he was the one who sent you the initial info. 

“Annyeong?*”

Ugh, you loved when he spoke Korean to you. He always sounded so cool when he spoke in his native language. Often, you had asked him to teach you some, but there was never spare time aside from the friendly chat. You actually haven’t kept in contact with him this often in a while. Look at this. Mean, grumpy murder-bot is bringing people together. Sweet.

“Hey, I was wondering if you could scrape up some more intel about that last round you sent me. Mostly concerning that image of the head, if it’s not too much trouble for you right now. Its… important.”

Silence, aside from the sounds of fingers against the keys.

“Someone else is looking into it, not just us. Is that why you are concerned?”

“I believe so.”

“Geunyeo- neugdae…*”

You had no idea what he just said, but waited for him to elaborate, leaning back, sitting on the arm of your couch. 

“The She-wolf? The thief… I know why she’s hunting it. I do not blame her for wanting to. I looked into that machine that lives with you. He’s been protecting you for now, but he is dangerous.”

God damn it. 

“Park, please… I cant let anything else happen to him. Help me find it.”

You heard a sigh, but because he wasn’t typing, you assumed he didn’t want to help you or he already knew where exactly it was. 

“You already know where it is. You know the only way to get there is to come here. I don’t think you want to join the games, just to find it’s head.”

You huffed. He was right. Kings canyon was a site for the Apex games, one they were currently using. There was no way in hell you were going to be able to break in there without getting caught and if you were to somehow join the games, you would die for sure. You were, for the most part, a very successful assassin, but that didn’t mean you had what it took to face up against literal legends. You had heard of them, seen them on television, after all, the Apex games were a famous blood sport that was every where, people talked about it constantly because it was the biggest source if entertainment, especially for those with money.

“Can you give her a red herring? Lead her off somewhere else? … just give me some more time…”

You couldn’t believe how desperate you had just sounded. It would make you look weaker than usual to beg him, but at this point, you would do anything.

“Please, Cryp… I cant let anything happen to him… please…”

Relief flooded your veins as you heard him begin to type. You knew you could trust your best friend to help you when you needed it most.

“Alright… I’m working on it. Watch yourself. I know what he’s done. You have to know what he has done by now. Don’t let him brainwash you into thinking he is better.”

You felt a sharp pang of anger rock through your veins, but held back, knowing that he knew the same information, but that didn’t mean that he knew him like you did. 

“Believe me. He didn’t. None of our hands are clean of blood. You and I have had our fair share of killing and for justifiable reasons. His are no different. They are monsters, Park. Fucking monsters. They deserve everything that’s coming to them and you know it too.”

His silence was enough to rest your case.

“Thank you… Thank you so much.”

You heard the typing continue and then a ping on your screen as more intel was sent to your device, it was more information on the simulacrum program titled; XAC. 

“That is what you requested of me and that is all I can give you for now. I have more work to get done before the next match. I will do as you ask and I will throw out a red herring, but you and I are both aware of how dangerous he is. I will be keeping an eye in the sky. One wrong move and I will no longer send support.”

“But Park-!” 

“We are still friends, always… There is only so much I can do.”

You understood. It was an odd situation to be in and you knew how hard this was. You knew who Revenant was. You knew what he was capable of and an idea of how many he had slaughtered in his “lifetime.” The instability… Park was right. He could end up cracking, killing you brutally, without hesitation for any reason. It was in his programming after all. 

“I understand. You have no idea how thankful I am for this…” 

You heard a quiet chuckle and a huff of his breath. You could almost hear him smiling softly. 

“I’ll see you around? Good luck in your game. Who knows, I just might watch today.” 

He sent you the lineup for the next Kings Canyon match and saw that he was teaming up with Mirage again. He acts like be hates mirage, but you had a feeling that Park secretly liked him. Sure, Mirage was a fool, but that’s the idea. It’s easy to underestimate him, but it’ll be your downfall. When you spectate his rounds on the Apex Games, he is actually very skilled. Very impressive.

“Oof, Mirage again.” 

You could hear an annoyed grunt over the line. 

“If it wasn’t for the fact that our team one last time, I would say they are doing it on purpose to irritate me.” 

You let out an overdramatic sigh, leaning back and falling into your couch cushions. 

“Come ooooon, Park! You two make a Good team!” 

“He is an idiot that gets himself into trouble and I have to dig him out .” 

“He’s dug you out of plenty.” 

It was probably best to drop the conversation, because talk of mirage was like talking to girls about their exs.

“He is a fool. End of story.” 

Story ended. 

“Alright, good luck on your game and… thanks. Thanks again.” 

His soft voice tickled your ear. 

“Cheonman-eyo… Be careful out there.” 

You held your communicator tightly in your hand as you whispered back. 

“I will. You too.” 

The line went dead and you sat there, thinking about everything he had said. None of it changed your mind about Revenant. You still stood firm on how you felt about him, but you would admit that Crypto was right. 

He was a terrifying force of nature.

You remember when you first saw him, how he tore through those men like cheese cloth, survived an explosion… you remember when he turned into a shadow of fire and smoke, taking bullets and smashing those people like fruit. 

You could understand your friend's concern. Your opinion couldn’t change though. The people he killed almost had you made into a monster yourself. If not you, some innocent women would have been made that way. It made you think about how lucky she was to have simply died and not been made into something like that. 

You looked back at your communicator, looking at all of the info in front of you. The head wasn’t transported yet, but was in the process…

It was still in Kings Canyon. If she knew that, then she could very well be on her way. You figured that if she took the bait, Crypto would give you the heads up, so that you could do what you needed to do. You were good at killing and this girl needed to die, whoever she was. Loba… Did Rev know her? Maybe he killed someone she loved and that’s why she’s hunting him. 

That had to be it, right? If she were some sort of bounty hunter, she wouldn’t have just harassed you and then left you alone after some simple threats. She would have tracked you to your home and dealt with you unless you told her what she needed to know. 

No… she just made a casual threat after asking for a lead and then vanished. Did she knew you were coming there? If she did, who could have told her? She had connections… maybe she knew he lived with you. Maybe she got a tip and waited there for you on purpose. 

You needed to finish your job for Frederick quickly, so that you could head out for Kings Canyon. There was no time to waste.

You were going to phone Frederick to ask him if you could take the mission tonight, but you were interrupted by Revenant’s door creaking open. 

Your heart dropped into your stomach and you almost let your expensive communicator slide out of your hand.

“What’s all the chatter in here, skin suit? Your friends didn’t want to talk about boys anymore?”

God he’s an ass, but you ate this shit up.

“My friends love talking about boys, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He lifted his shoulders in a light shrug, heading closer to you. God he was tall… a good seven feet. Definitely taller than you as you sat having to damn near look straight up to look at his face. You liked it though. You just had a thing for height. As he got closer, it got harder for you to breathe, remembering him grunting, telling some lucky skin suit to take his cum…

Keep it together. Act natural. This is no different from your other conversations.

“What’s got you so worked up then? You don’t look so good…”

You weren’t entirely sure if that was genuine concern or not since it sounded so sarcastic and creepy, but you would just take it and roll. 

“Oh, I’m fine, I’m fine, just trying to sort through some stuff with work, yup, just stuff with work and murder and… oH, you know the usual business. I mean, I don’t mean to ramble on like a crazy person and sound all suspicious, but that’s how its coming out and I sincerely apologize. Nothing is going weird today. Is that a new loin cloth? It looks prett- and pshhh, that scarf! It looks brand new. Gotta be my handy work.”

Fuck. 

His head tilted and he got closer, his face so close to yours, but without the sexual tension.

“It wouldn’t be wise to hide things from me. Would it? I would think you’d know better by now.” 

As scary as he seemed, you did get a strange vibe that he was still only playing with you, that it was safe to keep bantering, but as always, you were never completely sure. Guess you just had to dip your toe into the lava to find out if its hot or not.

“Oh, lovely, I would never hide anything from you! I very much love my insides to stay… well… my insides.”

Your lips pulled into a smile on instinct, somehow thinking that sentence, in general, sounded funny. 

“Awww, but that’s no fun… I really wanted to see them.” 

Jesus, there it was. The tension. 

What could he mean by insides? Maybe just your innards, but he could have been referring to something else, and that is always your struggle. 

“How badly?”

Did you just fucking say that? Yeah, you were horny on main, but if he wasn’t attracted to you, the odds of you making it out alive were slim. By the way he seemed taken aback slightly, you were certain that your situation was leaning more towards the former.

He growled and leaned over you, caging you with his arms into the cushions, looking down at you with those bright yellow eyes. His “breathing” tickled your skin as the hot air fanned your face.

“How bad?”

He taunted you. God, you deserved it. If he just walked away and left you hanging, making fun of you for the rest of your time together, you would deserve it. You would deserve everything coming to you. It was only to your surprise that you felt a knee parting your legs, that made you think… holy shit. This is happening.

“How bad, skin suit?”

You could only whine as the silver metal of his make shift “knee” grinded against your very needy core.   
You didn’t move, unsure of what you were allowed to do in this situation. Not so much allowed as you meant, what he was comfortable with. Being intimate in a body like this must be different for him, but since you heard it yourself, you knew he was capable of it.  
The whole point of that, though, was… What would he let you touch? If you touched somewhere he wasn’t comfortable with, you didn’t want to- oh my god that felt amazing.

He pressed closer to you, his body as flush as he could against yours, his leg still between your legs. One of his hands came around to cup your neck, pulling you up so he could nuzzle his face against yours, very slow, very sensual. 

“Why don’t you tell me how bad, skin suit…?”

What did he want you to say? Yes, hi, I cant help it, but I’ve lusted after you since the day I met You. I was in denial about it but realized how I felt just recently and now that I am in this very sexy situation, yes, I would very much like your cock inside of me, very much so, please?

That would be the weirdest thing to come out of your mouth. 

“Uh…”

That was all that came out. You were kinda freaked as much as you were into it, so ready, but not prepared at the same time. He backed off a little, as if sensing your discomfort, but you grabbed the red belts and pulled him closer.

“No! Don’t… uh… don’t go… I…”

All of your blood had to be in two places: your face and your clit, because that is all you could really process right now. 

Your voice fell to that of a whisper as you looked into his eyes, “I really, really want this… you have no idea…”

As if to confirm your statement, your rolled your hips up to grind against the red metal of his thigh plate, gasping at the sweet sensations. 

He looked down at you for only a moment before he sat up, pulling away from you.

Your heart felt like a sinking rock as he retreated from you, but lucky for you, he wouldn’t be retreating for long. He tugged you by your legs onto the floor, onto your plush, white carpet and settled between them. 

As he crawled over you, you began to feel dizzy, arousal spiking suddenly. He was so fucking beautiful. He just watched you, underneath him, looking up at him in anticipation. 

It was kinda funny. You expected your more intimate moment to be more passionate, quick and desperate, but instead, you were both confused. Both unsure of what to do. 

“Sorry, this is… we don’t have to do this if you don’t…”

You just had to throw that out there. It was kinda cliché, but it just didn’t feel right not giving him the option to walk away. Not that you wanted him to.

Your worries were then suddenly dashed when he closed in, his “lips” pressing against yours. His couldn’t move, so you picked up the slack. He pressed them to yours as you pressed against his, mouthing at his bottom lip, finding that you enjoyed that coppery taste.   
Like a switch was flipped, he pressed his body into you, your back arching up to meet him as you trailed off to kiss at his jaw. 

His breathing was becoming erratic and his moments were quick and desperate, grinding his privacy panel to against your needy cunt. 

“Fuck… I just…” his voice cracked.

You kissed and sucked at his red, leathery neck and just melted at his moans. His hips jerked and his lids lowered, the glow of his eyes, a pale yellow instead of a bright color like usual. 

“I know… I heard you…” 

He tensed, his gaze asking you if you were serious. 

“You wanted to fill up your little skin suit… make them take your cum… You have no idea how hot that made me…” 

How in the hell were you talking like that so easily to him and he was just going along with it? It was all happening so fast, yet you couldn’t complain as you felt his hands slide up your waist and cupping your breasts, teasing your nipples over the fabric of your shirt with his cold, metal thumbs. 

“Funny… I did say that today… was the little skinsuit eavesdropping? … not very polite.”

You arched into his touch, choking out a moan. It felt so good for him to just touch you, running hands over your skin. You wanted so bad to just touch him… 

“Can i… can I please…?” You reached up to give him an idea of what you wanted and instead of replying, he simply pressed his “cheek” into your hand, savoring the contact. He really reminded you of a cat here, how he nuzzled Into your touch. His hands pulled back, one of them coming up to hold your hand to his face, much like you did before on the couch. 

“I… I couldn’t help it… you’re just so fucking loud.”

Your other hand slid underneath his red scarf, feeling the armor plating of his shoulders, sliding up to cradle the base of his head. You wanted his mouth on you again, you didn’t care of he couldn’t technically kiss back. You just so desperately needed to feel him. 

Pulling him back to you, gently stroking over the plated and textured, your pressed your mouth to his, hooking your legs around his waist and pulling him closer. 

“Please, Rev, I wanna cum… please make me cum…”   
He grunted as he reached between you, fingers sharp, tearing a hole in your pants with one precise stroke, leaving your drenched pussy exposed to the cooler air. 

“Fuck… that fucking smell. Every time you smelled like that, I just wanted to fucking eat you up like a little snack…” 

You heard the click of his privacy panel and saw the attachment, it was red and gray, just like the rest of him. You thought that was aesthetically pleasing to look at as much as it was hot. 

It was as hard as the rest of him, drooling with “pre-cum.” He had no idea how fucking ready you were for him to just fuck you already, your mind hazy, intoxicated by him. You could feel your pussy throbbing for him, clenching around nothing just to have some sort of friction. 

“You knew…?” 

He chuckled darkly.

“I fucking knew alright. It was so hard to not smell your wet cunt when I got so close and personal…” 

You used your legs, still latched around his hips to pull him closer, his cock pressing into your, sopping hole. He let out a long, drawn out growl, his body quaking from the intense pleasure. 

“Fuck me… Please just fuck me… I need you so bad…” 

If he couldn’t deny himself, there was no way he could deny that request, his cock shoving into your tight, wet cunt. He inhaled sharply, but let out the most delicious groan as he continued to push as far as he could inside of you, your cries urging him on. 

You felt so fucking stretched. You never ever thought a cock could make you feel this fucking amazing, but Rev’s cock felt like it was made for you. It curled just right to rub against your g-spot. The metal was hard and smooth while the more flexible silicone was so delightful to the more sensitive insides. 

Just having his cock inside you felt so incredibly good. It made you feel more than just good. You felt elated. You felt connected. It was something you had thought about for a long time and now it was finally happening. He was inside of you, intimate and vulnerable. You couldn’t get enough. 

He started to move, his hips pulling back then sharply pushing back in, the metal slapping against your pelvis. It was sure to leave bruises, but it felt too good to worry about that. When he picked up the pace? You felt sparks, feeling the ridges of it rub just right inside of you to make you wail and beg for him to go faster, for him to fuck you deeper. 

“You’re sucking me in so deep, baby… So fucking tight… tch…” 

Your pussy twitched around him, making louder squelching sounds as he fucked you. You loved how He talked to you, his voice sending heat down your stomach to your core. 

“You like how I talk to you, human? You like how much I tell you how good your cunt feels?”

Yes, keep fucking talking, you felt yourself riding a high of arousal as he talked, every syrupy word falling from that stupid voice box made you soaking wet. 

“Yes, I like it…” 

He chuckled darkly.

“You’re going to like this too…” 

What? 

He pulled back away from you, hitching your leg over his shoulder to fuck into you at a new, deeper angle. Holy fuck, did you like this. Never before have you been put in this position, but it drove you crazy, your body lurching, thighs shaking as he pounded into you mercilessly. 

“You’re my skin suit… my perfect little skinsuit…” His hips now slapping against you in a perfect rhythm, his breathing ragged, groaning and growling, melting you, limp in his hold. 

“Reve- it’s so- Ah! Hnnnngggnnhhh” 

…..

….

…

Fuck he was gonna cum, fuck he was gonna cum… he felt his legs shake and his hips stutters against your soft flesh, your hot pussy squeezing tightly around him. It was so much better than his hand… so much better. 

He loved watching you writhe and moan in his hold, loved watching your lips part, your teeth clenched, but from pleasure instead of pain. He loved knowing you were like this because of him, that he could make you feel this fucking wonderful. His wonderful little skin suit…

He moved your leg off of his shoulder so that he could be closer to you, pressing his forehead against your sweaty one, looking into your eyes closed in bliss as he fucked you. Every time they cracked to meet his, he felt another pang of heat, feeling the fans inside if him having to work harder to keep certain tech inside of him cool. He, surprisingly enjoyed the intimacy of it, the closeness. It was so… loving. Not something he was used to.

All he could think about was how much he wanted you, how much he wanted to feel your skin every day, be inside of you, feel your lips on his faux ones.

This was it. He couldn’t hold off any longer, feeling his orgasm coming fast. The heat pooled inside of him, making him feel so human in this moment, feeling flushed as his groans turned to chokes whines. He couldn’t control a single sound that left him as he chased high in the tight walls of your cunt. 

“I’m gonna… gonna cum… fuck…” 

He heard her quiet, needy voice underneath him.

“Please… Please, Rev… cum inside of me… please cum for me, baby…” 

That was the only motivation he needed to fall apart, his hips jerking against yours as he filled you with his cum.

His arms were shaky, trying to hold himself up, but he held out, knowing that he could crush you if he wasn’t careful. 

Fuck, he loved how you looked at him, absolutely fucked out. Even in his fog of pleasure, he still noticed you hadn’t cum yet. He'd fix that. It wouldn’t be fair if his precious skin suit didn’t get to cum. 

He started to move inside you again, sitting up so he could have some room and a better view.   
He hissed with the over sensitivity, but wanted to feel you cum around him. He was desperate to feel you cum around him.

He loved watching your body shake under him as he rubbed a thumb over your clit as he slowly fucked into you. 

“You’re so fucking gorgeous… I fucking love being inside this tight cunt… I could fuck you all day…”

Your cries got louder as he continued his pace, his fingers moving quickly over your clit. 

“You want to cum for me, right, baby? You want to cum on my cock? … mmmmmmmh … that’s it…” 

He could feel your body convulsing under him, soft flesh, quivering and sweating as you got closer and closer to your release.

“I’m waiting…. Cum form me, skin suit…” 

You liked that, he could feel it, the way your pussy twitched and your breath hitched, before falling into a fit of tremors, your lips pulled back in a silent scream.   
He could feel your cunt squeezing his cock. Made him want a round two, but he supposed that could wait. He was going to bask in this glow that was your release.

“Such a good little skin bag… so good for doing what you’re told…” 

You panted, still recovering but managed a breathless chuckle. 

If he had a heart, it would be racing, watching her in the throws of pleasure made him feel just as alive as he did while killing. It was simply intoxicating, feeling your soft thighs, caressing the skin under your knees and running down the smooth skin of your shaven legs. 

Touching. He loved touching you. Remembering that he can feel. It made him not want disappear so badly, knowing the he had this one to hold, knowing he had you here with him. Living like this was still hard. It would always be hard and he would always hate it, but you. If he had to live for anything, it would be you. 

You were worth living for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SMUT
> 
> * hello?  
> * she-wolf  
> * You're welcome


	10. I can't

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Got to go to work

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry about the late update! Been busy moving!!! 
> 
> Thank you for your continuous support!   
> I love everyone's sweet comments! It's really keeping this story alive for me! 
> 
> Love you all!!!

You woke up in his bed, his arms holding you close to him, and his legs tangled with your own. It wasn’t the most comfortable position on the planet, feeling the soreness in your hips and back. There were definitely going to be some bruises, no doubt about that, but it didn’t matter. How could the bruises bother you one bit when you have him holding you so close, his face nuzzled into your hair, feeling the heat of his “breath.”

You didn’t know he could sleep or even had a power down mode. You figured he was just always awake, but here he seemed quite peaceful and quiet. You shifted a little to peak at his face, the lights of his eyes were out and lids were lowered almost all the way. 

You wanted to get up, but at the same time, really wanted to just stay in his arms for as long as you possibly could. Deciding you wanted to take advantage of this small time you would have with him before traveling to King’s Canyon, you pressed closer to him, your fingers caressing the smooth metal of his arm. 

You weren’t sure if you would get this opportunity again once you left. It was something you hadn’t felt in a long time, this closeness, someone’s arms snaking around you, holding you tight. You couldn’t remember the last time you woke up next to someone. 

Jesus. You had just slept with a robot. 

The thought hit you like a brick at sixty-five miles an hour. Gosh. As much as you thought you should think this was weird, which it was, you couldn’t. This felt so right, so normal. Sure, he wasn’t fleshy and sure, he was literally made of metal, but that didn’t stop you from seeing this “machine” as a man. 

You remembered how he had sat in his room, back against the wall, looking shaken and desperate. Not very different from how you had been three days ago, aside from hugs, he didn’t seem to be a very big fan that day. 

It popped into your mind, the moment when you held his hand and his grip on you softened, how he looked down at the floor, lost in his thoughts. He had looked so angry, so distant. 

Broken. 

You imagined him damaged and twisted, his arms mangled as he tried to drag himself away. A long metal staff driving into his head. Then it was his real head…

You needed to call Frederick. You needed to meet your quota before this new mission, but fear choked you, sweat beading on your face as you thought frantically. 

If she gets there before you can, will she succeed? Will she just kill you too? You could see her in that white corset and those long braids, her foot making a straight shot to your face. Her laugh grating over your sanity. 

You shook slightly at the thought of her destroying his head, worried about whether or not you could prevent it in time. You had to do something. You had to stop her. You couldn’t let her take him from You, not after this.  
You would die before you let her kill him. 

Your body shifted to move out of his grip, but he only pulled you in tighter, his arms around your waist, hands tickling your skin. 

“Where do you think you’re going?” 

His voice cracked as he appeared to power back on, everything booting up. He still had that flirtatious, hungry edge to his voice that really tugged at your heart strings. It was a shame that your previous thoughts had tugged them harder.

“I’m going to get ready for work, maybe make some breakfast? Why do you ask?” 

He huffed, hesitating to let you go. After he loosened his grip on you, you slipped out of bed and realized you weren’t wearing any pants or underwear for that matter. 

He was looking, wasn’t he? Well sweet Christ, he was staring. Even as you turned to look back at him, his eyes were glued to your ass. 

“Well, I’m going to my room to get changed and then I’ll be in the kitchen.” 

You heard him sit up as you left the room, but didn’t look back. If you looked back, you’d probably have stayed and as much as you wanted that, your fear drove you. 

You needed to move. 

This had to he awkward for him, for you to be intimate the day before and then suddenly you’re getting up and leaving? In your defense, you weren’t really sure what to do either, but that wasn’t the problem now. 

His very existence in your life could be in jeopardy and he didn’t know or maybe he did and he just wanted to let it happen. He didn’t know one thing for sure, that you were going there too and you'd be damned if you said anything to him about it. 

Rooting through your drawers, you found some old pants and slipped them on commando since you were going to be taking a shower anyway. No harm in that.  
Your feet sank into the soft carpet with each step. 

Fuck, you loved this carpet. You could sleep on this carpet and be content and now you could add the act of making love on it. It really was so comfortable for being on the floor. Bless the gods for its creation. 

The kitchen awaits and your stomach is just as impatient. You decided on waffles with a side of eggs, rooting through the fridge for ingredients and throwing it together. Waffle iron? Set. Eggs? In pan. Orange juice? Can’t live without it. You downed a cup before you even started and then not long after, you were back for seconds. 

You had heard the soft grinding of metal, not even bothering to look behind you. You already knew who it was.

Warm, metal hands slid down your curves, resting on your waist, his chin resting on your head. It was weird for his hands to be so warm, but maybe they were warm because he was with You that night.

He inhaled then exhaled, his thumbs rubbing small circles over your skin. 

“You’re pretty banged up, meat sack. I’ll take over.”  
You tilted your head to try and look at him, but the attempt would be futile as he nuzzled his face into the crook of your neck. 

“I’m good, Rev. Honest.” 

You weren’t sure what to say. You fucked him once and now he was like a much friendlier, giant cat. His touch felt amazing, you weren’t going to lie, but it was so strange for him to be acting so affectionate, so fast. 

As a matter of fact, everything was happening so quickly, almost too quickly. That wouldn’t dare stop you from leaning into his touch, arching to him as his hands moved higher up your waist. 

He massaged your ribcage with gentle fingers, the hot air from his “nose” puff against your neck. 

“Stop lying to me.” 

Your throat tightened. He knew, didn’t He? He could probably tell that something was off. He wasn’t stupid. 

“You were shaking…”

His tone was hard to place, sounding threatening, but trying to sound concerned? What were you supposed to say to him? You weren’t going to tell him about your plans, you had already made that clear earlier, so you would have to make up something. It would have to be something believable, something he wouldn’t question. 

Fucking hell, you didn’t want to go there, but…

“I had a nightmare. It was about… about what happened…”

You felt him tense. Anxiety rippled through you until he snaked his arms around you once more, pulling you close to him. He must have bought it. Good. You were sorry. God, you were so sorry for lying.

“I was so close to dying… they had me on the table and…” 

Now that you were talking about it, it was definitely  
bringing back some pretty bad memories, which made the act all the more realistic. 

“They’ll all end up maggot food if they try it again. If any of em’ so much as look at you, I’ll tear em’ apart.”

He pulled away from you only to turn you around to face him. His hands cupping your cheeks, forcing you to look up at him. His expression couldn’t change, so he was still locked in that hateful glare, but you could feel something soft in the low, yellow glow of his eyes. 

“I’ve got you, skin bag. Don’t you dare fucking forget it.”

Okay, no need to act when the feelings were real. The tears flowed freely down your cheeks as you looked up to him, your lips quivering. You never knew what it was like to have someone be so protective of you. It was almost as if it was just then hitting you, how much he cared; that he actually cared.

He leaned in to press those lips to yours. It was gentle, chaste, but lead on to deeper presses, backing you up into the counter. The smart thing to do would have been to pull away, stop this so that you could get ready to head out, but you couldn’t. You couldn’t do it. 

You craved him, couldn’t get enough.

He grinded against you, your legs parting as best they could to get that sweet friction. He cupped your jaw, urging your to lean your head into his hold, pressing his mouth to your neck. A sigh slipped from your parted lips as you enjoyed the feeling of him on your skin, the warm metal sliding over your soft flesh. 

“I’m gonna fuck you in this kitchen… Take your pants off or I’ll tear em’ off myself.”

He didn’t have to tell you twice! You playfully shoved him back so that your could get to your pants, enjoying his soft chuckle. Good to know he was amused with you. As soon as you had your pants down to your knees, you heard him groan. Yeah, you forgot about your lack of underwear and it was certainly a pleasant surprise for him.

“You want this too, huh? Heh… So ready for me...”

He lifted you up onto the counter, pulling your pants off from your feet, parting them once more.  
He leaned over you, your arms wrapping around his shoulders, holding him close as you heard his privacy panel click open. Fuck, you could already feel his cock rubbing against the crease of your thigh, so close to where you wanted it, but not quite. 

“I’ll make you forget that shit real fast. All you’ll be thinking about is me.”  
That was silly, considering that you thought about him all the time. He just slipped in through the cracks and took over your life. After everything you both had been through, you didn’t think you could stop thinking about him.  
“Then shut up and fuck me.”

He chuckled darkly, releasing one of his hands from your hip in favor of palming at your heat. 

“That’s not how you beg for it…” 

His fingers teased at your lower lips, rubbing along the outside of them to avoid touching your hole or your clit. 

“I know you know how… after how well you begged for it yesterday…” 

You reached up to grab the knot of his scarf, pulling him closer so you could breathe him in. 

“I hardly had to say anything yesterday. You were so easy…” 

Dear Jesus, his laugh… it so warm and through your arousal, you felt something else. A tightness in your chest, not anxiety. Maybe love? You knew you loved him in some odd, twisted way, but this was so intense and all because he laughed so genuinely. 

“Oh, but you spread your legs so quickly for me. You were just waiting for me to touch you this whole time. Right, I’m the easy one.” 

He taunted you, still teasing you with those smooth, metal fingers. 

“You’re being such a dick, just fucking put them in me already if your not going to fuck me yet.” 

His fingers came to a halt, staring at you, noting your defiance. 

“You’ll get nothing at this rate, skin suit.” 

You used a hand on the counter to keep yourself propped up while one hand still held onto his shoulder, your curious fingers teasing the long, sharp, silver protrusions. 

“I think you’re too impatient to sit here and wait for me to behave on this counter. Eventually you’ll just take want you want and end the end I’ll be satisfied.” 

He purred at the idea, but ultimately ignored your  
provocation. 

“Say. Please. Now!” 

His hand on your hip squeezed in a playful warning and his fingers circled your dripping hole tantalizingly. Your limits were breaking with that, the need to feel something inside becoming more urgent. 

“Fine! Fucking, fine! Please! Please shove your fingers into me! Fuck me! Do something! I beg you, my liege. ” 

He scoffed. What? He not like that answer? You were feeling a little stubborn at the moment…

“You’re such a little bitch… You’re gonna pay for this later.” 

Two fingers pressed into your pussy, meeting little to no resistance as he scissored and stretched you further, you shivered and sighed in his hold. You were surprised he did anything for you, but would take what he gave nonetheless. His fingers twisted and stroked at your inner walls as he pumped them inside of you. 

“Just a little… a little higher… please.” 

He obliged, rubbing right over the best spot. 

“That’s nice! Right there…”

He snarled, but pushed in another finger, your teeth clenching at the stretch.

“You’re such an ass! Ah, Fuck! Why won’t you just fuck me already!” 

You writhed and moaned in his hold, lost in the intense pleasure as he fucked you quickly with his fingers, your juices covering his hand, dripping onto the counter top. 

“The mouth on you… I should shut it up with my cock. Lucky I’m feeling generous today, so I’ll be taking your cunt instead.” 

His smooth fingers curled and stretched inside of you, extending to reach deeper, caressing places that you would never have been able to reach, you choked out, eyes wide at how deep he was, saliva dripping down your chin. You couldn’t believe how weirdly good it felt.  
It was like you were in some porno movie, fucking some robot monster that was reaching inside of you with some crazy robo-tentacles… except, you were fucking a robot monster with some crazy ass fingers. 

Oh, my god.

His smooth lips brushed against your ear, his hot “breath” making the hairs stand up on your neck.

“You ready, yet, skin bag? I’m becoming impatient.”

You couldn’t even try to suppress the scoff.

“You!? Impatient!? You’ve been keeping me waiting!”

His fingers pulled from you, leaving you empty and frankly, sad. You watched him look over his hand, shaking his head before tilting it to look down at you.

“Disgusting. It’s your mess, why don’t you clean it up?”

He pushed his fingers into your mouth before you could squeeze in any words of protest, the slight tang of your juices filled your mouth. The taste wasn’t bad, just unexpected. 

“It smells delicious… wish I could have a taste…” You taste it for me.” 

His fingers pressed your tongue, rubbing small circles to feel the squishy, wet muscle under them. 

“Shhhhhhh… We're getting to the good part now.” 

His fingers slipped from your mouth, sliding over your cheek. You didn’t normally like anything getting on your face, but in the heat of the moment, you really couldn’t care what he smeared on you.

“Get ready, baby. Gonna fuck you til you finally shut that bitchy mouth of yours.”

His hands holding your hips, he eased his synthetic cock into you, quietly groaning as he felt the tight heat of your cunt.

It was about fucking time he gave it to you, the sweet stretch of his dick that had your thighs shaking, your heart racing, and your skin flushed. Your legs wrapped around his waist, resting comfortably over his hips. Soon, he was all the way in and looking down over you, his shoulders were slack and his head bowed.

Neither of you said anything in this “calm before the storm.” it was an intimate moment. You were both basking in the sensation of your connection, your lips parted as his shoulders shivered with delight.

He began to move slowly, your free arm that wasn’t propping you up moved to your side to find his hand, your fingers intertwining with his, stroking what you could reach with your thumb, tenderly.

He had looked down at your hands together for a moment, his slow thrusting only pausing for a moment. You couldn’t tell how he felt about it, so it could have been anything. He could have been timid about how too loving that was or he was just surprised and liked it. You still weren’t sure even after he gave your hand the gentlest squeeze.

His other free hand moved up your stomach to your chest, leaving feather light touches over your sensitive nipples, still under the fabric of your shirt. He wasn’t done though, continuing his path up to your chest, then to your throat where he wrapped his cool fingers around you.

Your breath hitched at the thought of him just closing them, squeezing you until your world turned dark, but he didn’t, just keeping his hold light over your delicate skin. Metal fingertips stroking over your jugular occasionally as he fucked into you.

“Rev! Fuck…”

Your heart pounded with adrenaline when they pressed just a little harder.

This was fucking scary, but you wouldn’t deny that it was fun. Being banged on the kitchen counter while being held by the throat by a professional killing machine was quite the high to ride. You didn’t want to stop riding anytime soon.

You could hear it, your phone ringing from the living room. It was probably important and should have been answered, but Revenant growled.

‘’Ignore it.”

Of course you were going to ignore it, drowning out the tone with the sounds of Revenant’s sweet praises like, 

“Who’s my good little, skin suit?” “So well behaved.” “As if you could ignore me for that fucking phone.”  
Delightful!

You wanted to give him a snarky reply, but kept it to yourself, wanting to gratefully accept his compliments and sweet words.

He was about to cum, you could feel it, the way his hips began to stutter, the way his hand twitched in your hold, the way his groans turned to whines.

“Fuck… touch yourself… I wanna watch.”

You didn’t want to let go of his hand, but his wish was your command and you wanted to get off too, fingers not hesitating to circle your clit, fast. It was quite the view now that you were actually looking at his cock plowing you into the counter instead of being mesmerized by his face. 

That cloud was forming in your brain, that one that trapped you in a fog of lust, a feeling you could only get by being with him. It was such a strong pang of arousal that you quickened your pace on your clit. Watching the way his waist curled or how his pelvis snapped forward, how that soaker gray and red cock slammed into your greedy hole over and over again.

“Don’t. Don’t you dare stop… Please…”

His fingers released your neck in favor of cupping your cheek, pulling your head closer to bring your lips together.

“As if I would stop…” 

Your hips jolted and grinded against the desperate pumping of his cock, your body shaking with each slap of his metal against your skin. It was quite the feeling, not something you could ever experience with another human being unless they were in some full body armor of some kind, like master chief. Imagine getting boned by master chief and the metal just kept smacking you. It wasn’t nearly as painful as it sounded though. 

Your lips moved against his before you nuzzled the side of his face. Your climax got closer and closer, your cries got louder and louder. You knew he could tell since he doubled down his efforts to focus more on making you cum. 

Such a gentleman.

He moved a bit, shifting to try to find a better, new angle, looking for the spot of all spots. Like last time, he was pretty good at finding it. You gasped as his cock hit it, pumping against it at a decent enough pace to match the speed of your fingers.

“I wanna cum… please I wanna cum, Rev…” you whimpered into his mouth as he rammed into you his fingers curling into your hair and pulling it back. 

“Then cum already, my beautiful little skin suit…” 

Your hips lurched at his command, squeezing his cock and leaking your cum all over him. Your body shivered, muscles seizing only to relax moments later.  
Pleasure washed through you as you rode out your orgasm, trying to enjoy the show of Rev using your spent cunt like a good toy, taking advantage until he came, instead of inside your pussy, he pulled out of you, wanting to cum stripes over your stomach. 

He worked his wet cock over you, probably draining over half of his cum reserves, leaving your stomach and thighs covered in his mess.

You mumbled something to him, not even really sure what it was, being in the glow of your climax still. He had stopped moving, frozen, staring down at you. Your heart stopped. Why was he so tense? He let go of you and backed away. Rev looked down at his hands for a moment before quickly leaving the room, leaving you a mess on the counter, your eggs and waffles very much burned and ruined. 

“Wha-I… Wait!”

He didn’t look back, his door slamming was the signal to stop talking to him.  
You were in shock. Staring in the direction of his door with so many questions and a hole punched into your heart.

What in the fuck did you say to piss him off after such lovely sex? Damn. You wanted to go to him, press him on the matter, but the more intelligent side of you coerced you into staying put, however, this pain reminded you of this morning. Maybe it was what you needed to get you back on track. When he was nearby, all you could think about was him and how intoxicating his presence was. A bit of space would be good for your focus.

Of course there was anger. Over two hundred years old and walking away like a stubborn child? Why couldn’t he just talk to you like a fucking adult? Those questions rattled around in your brain, trying to stifle the other louder thoughts of how he was doing or if he was okay.

“Fine. Whatever.”

You hopped off of the counter and immediately got to cleaning up your mess as well as your wasted breakfast.

Your heart hammered in your chest with a swirl of different emotions mostly consisting of irritation, confusion, and sadness. The usual.  
You had a job to do today. It wasn’t worth getting upset. Shower time.

…

..

.

You walked up to the office door, posture straight, lips in a tight line. You were an intimidating piece of work at this place, not the best, but certainly not the worst and everyone knew that. They didn’t mess with you strictly for that reason. This organization was kind of like a family and like all families, there’s always those older or younger siblings that have to bully everyone. It be like that sometimes. You used to be at the bottom of the food chain when you first started, taking everyone’s shit and saying please and thank you. It wasn’t until you really started proving your work on actual missions that people began to give you respect. 

People never met your gaze when you walked by unless they were at your level or better. Okay, now it sounds more like a wolf pack.

Frederick’s office was on the second floor with guards everywhere. Normally, you would just go to the bounty board, but you decided you would pick it up in person in favor of any other way of receiving it. You wanted the details now and you wanted to head out as soon as possible.

“Code name and password?” the guard asked politely.

“Code name: Glacier. Password: Garret sucks.”  
One of the guards peaked out from his spot.

“Hey! Not cool!”

You recognized him as the guard, Garret, that you may or may not have been referring to in your password.

“Hey, buddy! I didn’t know you got switched to this building otherwise I would have changed my password!”

The other guard gave a curt nod and let you pass, leaving you to escape through the door whilst giving Garret a thumbs up.

“Garret sucks? Childish, is it not?”

Freya. Great.

Freya was probably the greatest sniper in your organization, her Sentinel rife littered with marks. From what you had heard, that wasn’t even all of them. In order to stop scratching up her rifle, she started scratching them onto the walls of her dorm room. There were an entire two walls full of marks. People thought she was a monster, some kind or god at least. She wasn’t though. She was a woman, a sweet one at that, but very cold and very mature.

“It was a bet.”  
Her tired eyes rolled.

“No, you thought it was funny, so you picked that to get a reaction. Was it as satisfying as you thought it would be?”

Eh, she wasn’t completely wrong, but hey, you did enjoy it.

“Of course! I gotta get my kicks from somewhere.”

She gripped the strap of her rifle tightly and stopped right in front of you, standing in your way of the elevator. Her long brown hair, braided in one thick braid over her shoulder, her green eyes boring deep into your own. Her fingers gripped the strap of her rifle til her knuckles turned white.

“Is uh… is everything ok?”

She reached out to you, her hand on your shoulder.

“Are you alright? You are very distraught.”

Did you look that much like shit? Freya usually wouldn’t give a shit about how you felt. Clearly you had to look bad if she were to be showing you any concern.

“I’m good, Frey, just going through some stuff.”

She moved to tap the up button on the elevator, still facing you, her eyes still trained on you. You didn’t get to see her so up close very often, so you really noticed how beautiful her long sleeved black under armor hugged her body or how the sash around her waist was tied to the side in a cute bow. Her dark green cargo pants and black boots stood out from the black and the purple.

“It’s not family, so what is it? A relationship? Not eating well?”

Oh, Gee, thanks. As if you haven’t heard the last one before.

“Technically yes to both of them. I wasn’t taking the best care of myself.”’

The elevator dinged and you both stepped out into Frederick’s office. She stayed behind you as you walked on in, heading towards his sleek, black desk.

“Well, I didn’t think you would show up.”  
You shrugged, “I was under the impression you were sending it to me.” 

He waited to respond for a minute, observing, the tension thick enough to cut with a knife. His fingers drummed the desk and you could hear Freya fiddling with her rifle, which made you pretty nervous. 

“It’s good you came in person today. I wanted to discuss your recent… failure, or at least your failure to effectively escape.” 

Your fists clenched, your heart dropping to your stomach as you heard the sound of Freya’s rifle cock behind you. 

“What about it?” 

He sighed and shook his head. 

“You don’t get It? You could have compromised this whole organization for being caught by THEM. THEM of all people! It’s a disgrace for one of my own to be so incompetent. Hmmm? Oh, did you really think I was going to just yell at you over the phone and be done with it? You need more motivation than that.” 

You turned your head go look back at Freya. No tears, but you could tell by the twitch in her lips and the small cracks in her expression that she didn’t want to be here. The jackass. 

He stood up from his desk, walking around it to stand over you. He was a good head taller and now that you had a gun to the back of your head, he was slightly more terrifying than usual. 

“Explain why you needed to know about Factory : 32. Explain how you broke out of a High security lab several floors underground, while drugged? Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t care. This, however was too much this time; Too big of a failure, a risk.”

This was actually pretty bad. 

Your plan was to keep Rev under wraps and assumed that Frederick would find out on his own and keep quiet, but now he’s making a spectacle and you’re the main attraction! Bullshit! 

You looked down at the floor, suddenly annoyed by how large each shiny black tile was, like long sheets of black glass. 

“I’m waiting.” 

It was either explain or get shot. Your options were very limited. 

“You remember that mission? The one where one I was a good few hours late? The one where I got shot and thrown through glass? Yeah. Oh, and the building exploded?”

You took his pissed expression as a yes. 

“I met their loose simulacrum, the one everyone’s been talking about. I’ve been helping take down Hammond, or at least trying to. He’s staying with me and I’m helping to take care of him. That’s How managed to escape. He killed most of them and Crypto, himself, wiped my info from my device to where an attempt to access it, isn’t smartest thing to do.” 

You stood firm. Can’t look weak here.

“Yeah, I got caught, but with help from those two, I'd say this was a safe success. They have nothing, I’m back here, alive and ready for another mission.” 

His pissed off expression just kind of fell away to reveal the shock and awe. He never really made such bold expressions outside of anger, so this was unnerving to say the least. 

“You’re fucking joking. This has to be a joke.” 

You shrugged. 

“How else could I have broken out of a underground high security lab and not have my info on every screen in the city?” 

He turned his back to you, a hand on his desk as you could tell he was trying desperately hard to process what he was just told. 

“THE Crypto? The famous Hacker? The one from the fucking Apex Games? He’s watching over your tech? You want me to believe that HE is baby sitting you?” 

You crossed your arms, hearing Freya get a little twitchy behind you. Every time you heard her shift, your chest washed with anxiety. Any cue he gave her would put you in a box six feet under. 

“Yes.” 

“And you’re telling me that you were saved by the rogue, Assassin simulacrum that was built by Hammond? The one that has been hunting down Hammond employees and slaughtering them?” 

“Yes.” 

He whipped around and grabbed you by the belts of your gear, your feet almost not touching the floor, startling you, but not retreating or resisting. 

“Where’s your proof! There’s no way in hell-!”

You pulled out your communicator and pulled up Crypto's symbol, as well as a bunch of info sent to you by him. 

The room was filled with holo-pad images of murders, info about Hammond, and the head. 

“This is it. This is my proof. He Is my connection. We keep in touch and he gives me much needed info.”  
Frederick ran a hand through his thinning hair and let you go, looking over the images with peaked interest. 

“That explains everything then… Send me copies of those files.” 

He looked back at you, a glare, but then looked to Freya and she put her gun down with a relieved sigh. 

“This doesn’t change how I feel about your failure. You have a new mission. Don’t mess this up.” 

He sat back down in his desk and took a sip of his coffee. 

“If you fail, Freya here is going to end your life faster than you were conceived. Got it?” 

“Yes, sir. Can I hear the details of the mission?” 

He sipped his drink again before activating the holo on his desk. A flash of bright blue and a map was over you. 

“You’re going for a night on the town. Wife put a hit on her cheating husband. You’re going to lure him away and do him in. Do whatever you have to do to get him away. She wants it brutal. She doesn’t care how.” 

Huh. 

That was quite the request. So you we’re going to have to seduce him? Ugh. Gross. You hated missions like these, but sometimes to get certain prey, you have to play with it a little, no matter how irritating that can get. At least, you’ll get dinner, you suppose.

You accepted the file. 

“Are we done?” 

He just waved you away, watching his screen, not giving a damn. Going from zero to a hundred was definitely your lovely boss's style. He'd tear out your heart, stomp on it, then put it all back nice and gentle-like. 

“Consider it successful.” 

You turned and left with Freya on your heels.  
You wanted to get down the decent sized hallway and then stopped in front of the elevator, much like she did before. 

“You were going to fucking shoot me?” 

She looked slightly flustered, still trying to keep her composure. 

“I can’t tell him no.” 

You weren’t mad at her. How could you be mad? If she were to tell him no, she would be just as dead as you would have been at the end of her rifle. 

“God! I’ve almost died so many times in this past couple months, I’m wondering if I’m cursed or not.”  
She playfully pushed you into the elevator and after entering, selected the floor. 

“You know, that’s fucking terrifying, living with that thing… That could be a curse all in itself, but…” 

She tilted her head away from you, braid swinging lightly with her movements. Her cheeks were slightly redder. 

“You… you know Crypto?” 

Now, your co-worker has a crush? That is honestly the sweetest , especially for Freya. They would be two peas in a pod. Too bad he’s not interested in dating as far as you know. You were pretty sure he was too paranoid to trust anyone too intimately. 

Who knows? Anyone could open him up, crack him like an egg, like you did, except without the dating. You can’t think of ever being romantically attracted to Crypto. You loved him, of course, but it would only be like that of a brother or close friend. 

“Yeah, I know him. We're pretty good friends.”

She shifted her weight onto her other foot and sighed.

“Could you… get his autograph for me? Maybe…? I mean…” 

You belted out a laugh as the elevator neared your destination. It was just the funniest thing, seeing her crushing on Crypto of all the people in this god forsaken universe… 

The doors open and you straightened your posture, wiped your face clean of amusement and walked through the few groups of assassins that parted for you both to walk through. 

Freya was above you in the social hierarchy, not that you really cared all that much, but you did notice those terrified stares that lingered on her back as she walked by. 

“Don’t you think this whole thing just seems Prehistoric? It seems silly to behave in such a way when we could just respect one another equally.” 

She handed her rifle off to another worker, giving you a sideways glance as they took it back to put it away. You were surprised she let anyone else touch that thing. 

“We are hunters. It’s in our nature to be a little primal. 

Some of us are better than the rest.”  
She crossed her arms and leaned against the wall by the exit. 

“We aren’t baking cookies here, either. We are killers. If we are professionals at that, don’t you think there is something there to be feared? Just a little bit? It’s in people’s nature to feel fear its something that’s worthy of being feared.  
We are it.”

She opened the main door to the exit, giving you a moment to button up your coat to hide the uniform underneath.

“Be careful… Around that…” 

She was right in some sick way. Putting yourself in other people’s shoes, if you were to be bad at this and work with someone like her? You would be pretty scared too.

“Don’t even worry about it.” 

…..

…..

…..

Revenant sat on his bed, staring at his hands. 

“Damn it.” 

You really went and said something like that. You couldn’t mean it, you had just cum. Yeah, that had to be it. 

You hadn’t known each other long enough for that.

“God, I love you… I love you so much.” 

He replayed it over and over in his head, remembering the red in your cheeks and your half lidded eyes. 

Fuck. 

He couldn’t love you. 

He’s not supposed to love anyone, so why is so so desperate to have you, to feel your soft skin, to call you his. 

He can’t. 

He can’t have you. 

He got up, feeling the sudden urge to go after his next target.


	11. Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We find ourselves in quite the predicament. Our friend is being hunted and you are on the brink of an emotional collapse because of your newfound abandonment issues. ;)
> 
> Enjoy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry about the wait, once more. 
> 
> Im still here! I haven't died! 
> 
> It's been kind if a struggle guys, for real, but I'm sticking to guns and gonna finish this.  
> Thank you all for your support! 
> 
> Don't forget to kudos and comment!  
> It gives me lots of motivation to keep going.  
> ❤  
> Love you guys!

He had just finished the next skin bag on his hit list. _Good fucking riddance._ It was another waste of space that he was happy to take out. He was always more than happy to take out another one of Hammond’s little puppets. He was feeling extra dramatic today, might as well put on a show and let everyone know that the boogeyman was in town. 

If he ever went back, wouldn’t that be golden? You would definitely scold him for the loud display. 

Shaking the drying blood from his hand, he wandered the rooftops, instinctively heading to a certain place. He had been there in a few months and just felt pulled into returning, all while bijng distracted, thinking about everything that was happening around him. His mind wandering with the pain, revenge, exhaustion… and you.

You knew where the source code was or at least a general idea of it. 

If he knew exactly where it was and had the capability of destroying it himself, he would have been on his way a long time ago, but here he was waiting for someone to finally end this pathetic existence, so far, to no avail.  
You know those sayings about immortality? He more than definitely understood them now. He felt pathetic just sitting here, waiting for someone to finally kill him.

He would have to trust someone to destroy the code and you clearly wouldn’t, especially after telling him about your true feelings. There was no way in hell you would shoot his head if he asked. He could almost see the tears welling up in your eyes or the soft touch of your fingers on his metal chest. He could hear your quiet begging, kneeling on the ground in desperation or grief. 

_“Please… I don’t… I don’t want you to die. I can’t let you die yet… I need you. Please.”_

Fuck, he wanted to love you. He wanted more than anything to make you his, but knew that it was dangerous. If he were to open up to someone for the first time, give them a piece of himself, they could just end up dying and he really couldn’t handle another reason to hate being alive. He would lose himself or whatever was left, further into this cold shadow that swelled within him; this shade of hatred that sometimes obscured everything he actually cared about. 

_Even you._

Some of that blindness was due to his own insecurities, which he knew but would never say it out loud. Insecurities that involved him being a literal machine of death while you were so soft and fragile, someone that could break so easily under his touch, someone that gave him a desire to live even though the agony he constantly felt made him want to die.

He felt it. 

He felt the fear come back in flashes, flashes of pain and absolute horror that would leave him in frantic bouts of violence, glass shattering, walls dented, destroyed. The destruction couldn’t even scratch the surface to alleviating the pain, though the only exception to weakening it was you.

However, the comfort you provided was a treatment more than a cure and after your attentions, he was back to feeling just as miserable as he was before and he knew he couldn’t live like this.

If he had the choice, he would just end it now like he had attempted so many times before, only to be disappointed by his sudden renewed and more twisted consciousness. 

A part of him couldn’t stand the thought of you mourning him, losing someone else when you had already lost your brother, your parents and who knows what else. He could be the cherry on top of this disgusting cake, leaving you as lost as before. He knew how humans worked. They need companionship, much like he started to need you. 

He knew what it was like to be alone, to be forced to shut everyone out. The life of an assassin wasn’t an easy one and he could see the wear and tear in your eyes already. He could see how taxing it was on you to lose people, whether or not they were close to you. It was much like drowning, kicking and flailing for some sort of attention, affection, but the deeper you go, the more out of reach you become. 

He, to the contrary, enjoyed watching the life slip from someone eyes, because he was programmed to love it, to crave it. Any normal human would see death and feel some sort of trauma. That’s just seeing it, though. 

If you kill someone, it’s a whole different ball game. It’s a weight that stays with you forever and the as the body count grows, so does the weight on your shoulders. People manage it by justifying it somehow, but death is death. It’s not like the games you play. There is no “extra life” or a chance a chance to try again. Once they die, they are gone, as simple as that. 

You can pretend all you want that you are fine, but deep inside, the loss builds inside, ready to explode. Unless, of course, you are a healthy individual and seek help for it, but assassins struggle to find that sort of help.

If he were to die, he would end up being another corpse on the pile of bodies behind you. He could imagine the horror on your face as you stared up at his empty, metal shell, pulled apart and strewn over the mountain of death, his lifeless “eyes” looking into your own as you collapse to your knees. 

Would you break If he succeeded? Would someone be there to catch you since he wouldn’t be? It was so strange how much the question terrified him. Being so lonely, finding someone who understands you, forming a relationship, and then finding their death was by their own choice? He wanted this more than anything, yet could see how fucked up it was.

He had made it back to his old apartment, staring with a sick, sinking feeling at HIS footprints carved into the floor. It was from three-hundred years of enslavement, being used like some sort of mindless weapon even though they knew full fucking well he had a mind. 

They gave him thoughts, feelings, and even the ability to touch, to actually feel things. As much as he was thankful for some of those things, there were some parts of that he wished they’d left out.

Pain. 

Those fucking pieces of shit did it on purpose as a means to make the illusion more believable, but in the end, it made him insane, the feeling of his eyes melting in his sockets had haunted him almost as much as drowning. Or was it being stabbed in the heart that made his metal body begin to quake.

If only he could’ve made those fuckers pay for what they did, he’d have made them suffer; suffer for as long as they could take the torture he would’ve gave. He would left them in so much torment, they would have been babbling for their mommies, drooling like infants.

It’s a shame they’re all already dead. Lucky for them. The few he did manage to interrogate over his creation… well… _they weren’t so lucky._

The old tree beside his holoscreen was dead and damn near falling apart, though he remembered when he was- thought he was human, it had been very much alive and green. In fact all of his plants were dead or decayed to the point where only a little black stalk was left and dust where the leave had fallen and crumbled. 

In his illusion, it had looked clean and simple, just as he liked it. Everything was very nice, like the theatre screen above his bed on the ceiling, or the nice, rain jet shower, the lovely kitchen and a well-lit living room with another large holoscreen. The sofas in there were so nice it might as well have been a theatre. He loved his bedroom, though.

He liked the bed close to the window. It was a nice view and he loved to see the stars that flickered just a glance away outside of the clear glass. He remembered watching some old action movies on the screen above his bed, laid back and hands cradling his head, occasionally playing with his soft, blonde hair. 

It’s nothing like how it looked in the illusion now, wires hanging from the ceiling, everything covered in dying growth and dust. The sheets on the bed were torn and old and the screen above it wasn’t even there. 

He remembered this place from the memories, after the lie was revealed and suddenly he could see the ugliness of his “home.” If he had the capacity to be sick, he would’ve vomited already 

Why did he come here? He had to see it again for some reason. Was it to avoid You? 

Maybe. 

Aside from that, something just pulled him here. Something did at least. It was the last place he remembered feeling alive, remembering those blue eyes, blonde hair, feeling the cold metal of his pistol in his warm fingers as he slid the magazine into the bottom and loaded it. 

He knocked his hand against the wall where this clothing were and the drawers popped out, his long sleeve shirts and vests were folded neatly, yet covered in dirt, dust, and rodent droppings. They had been torn up from being so old. He could feel the feeling of smiling as he looked down at them. 

The clothing he had thought he wore was just an illusion, but he felt some weird kind of happiness, knowing the clothes were actually there, that it was something he had worn while he was alive. He tried to pick it up, but it fell apart easily from being so old.

His head snapped up when he heard a ragged Voice assistant pipe up about a notification.

He had gotten a message on that nasty, cracked screen, it lighting up as best it could and revealing in big bold letters, surrounded by red. 

**CONGRATULATIONS! You have been chosen to be the new legend to compete in the Apex Games!**

He read on to find that if he were interested, to messaged whoever they gave to him to contact. 

Kings Canyon. Yeah. That was where the factory was, somewhere, though he wasn't exactly sure as to where. 

Whatever. The Apex Games? That would be fun. Getting to kill all day without any repercussions? It’s Revenant’s wet dream. 

He looked over to his old desk and saw his trusty wingman that had been left a good month or more ago. It was a little dirty from dust , not anything a good clean couldn’t fix. 

Yeah. He’d join. 

He opened it up to see that it had still been loaded and snapped it back shut. 

He felt his non-existent heart pumping with excitement at the thought of being able to rip and tear his helpless opponents to bits, a growl rumbling in his chest as he slid open the contact to respond.

“Yes? Um, h-hello?” 

**“I want in.”**

….

…..

…

You flung your bloody bag onto the hard wood floor, it landing with a wet smack and goods poured from it. Left over breadsticks that you had no intention of eating anymore, some jewelry you liked, and of course, a cool paperweight you had found on a dresser of his. 

You struggled to pull your tired body through the window and sat down on the counter. You were lucky the kitchen window pulled back, too, otherwise the blood would have stained your carpet for sure. Blood on the carpet was an absolute no, no. Even if it killed you. Revenant's glass and oil spill was still stained there from his… incident. You were still scrubbing that in your downtime, remembering him laughing at you as he walked by. 

I bet this all sounds kinda crazy and maybe even a little confusing. Well that’s because your _“seduce the target”_ ended in a success. You smiled, stole his heart, and dragged him back to his home on a leash. 

There was a whole controversy behind it and you found out the wife was a cheater too, but rules are rules and you had no intention of denying your boss his blood. 

Sure, you felt bad for the guy, finding out that his cheating was just in retaliation to his wife doing the same. Eye for an eye, right? Well, turning down a mission that had your life riding on it, wasn’t very smart, so you did your job, said your sorry and went back home. 

As soon as he got the idea of what was happening, smart man, he fought back, and hard. He was bigger and stronger, but you were trained how to use his size and strength to your advantage and like the snake you were, overwhelmed him, knocking him over the head with the butt of your knife in just the right spot to have him limp over your panting body.

You grabbed that really cool paperweight and bludgeoned him till his head was like a red velvet cake. 

The wife wanted it to appear to be a crime of passion, a jealous girlfriend finding out there was a wife and brutally beating his skull in before escaping. You had left certain evidence behind like other people’s blood or finger prints, dropped a fake id on the floor and pushed it under the couch where you know they’d find it.  
It was like painting a masterpiece. You knew exactly what they were going to check for and where. It would be so easy to lead them off of your trail, like moths to the flames. This whole ordeal left you tired, sore and covered in drying blood.

Dinner was nice. Enjoyed some fancy meat and wine while he gloated about all the money he had and all the cool stuff he bought the day before. Cool. No one gives a shit about that. Well clearly people did if they fell to their knees before this guy like he’d suggested. 

Eh, whatever. 

You jumped into your shower after a struggle trying not to mess up the white floor. Happy to finally get all of the blood off of you and soak your tired, sore muscles with the relaxing, hot water. 

You hit a button to activate the holo screen in your bathroom, wanting some white noise to listen to as you washed your hair with your favorite shampoo. That metallic smell had been in your lungs for so long that you almost forgot what fresh smelled like.

Oh! An interview with James McCormick. The people’s champion! Right. 

The Outlands reporter, Lisa Stone, was asking him about whether or not he felt ready for the Apex Games, considering the negative feedback, yet he responded as pompously as possible, saying that the legends haven’t faced anything like him. 

Yeah. They probably haven’t faced anything near as weak. 

You began to rinse the soap from your hair, Forge going on to say that he would be ready for them up close and personal. Hah, as if.

_Good luck, Jimmy._

Bloodhound would tell him go suck it. Forge had a metal arm, but you were sure that Gibraltar could hit harder than that pussy. Don’t even get yourself started on Lifeline. That beautiful woman would shove those drumsticks right into his eyes all while laughing at how pathetic he was. Your favorite boy, Crypto? He wouldn’t even be close enough to be hit. Come on, Jimmy. Come up with a better threat than that.

“Psh… Ass.” 

You didn’t really care for Forge. You didn’t know all that much about him to say you really hated him, but his personality was so grating that every attempt to try and think he was somewhat cool just vanished every time he opened his asshole mouth. 

“Oh, we seem to be experiencing some technical difficulties, sorry… about… that…” 

She sounded stunned, worried even and that caught your attention, peeking out of the glass stall to watch.  
What you were witnessing made your legs almost give out from under you in shock. 

The Revenant was right behind The Forge, his arm cocking back, his hand sharpened to a point.  
Time almost seemed to freeze or slow down as you watched Revenant’s hand on Forge’s shoulder or the slow motion of Revenant’s arm being shoved into Jimmy's back and out his chest. The camera switched back to Lisa immediately, her face splashed with blood and her terrified scream put a chill in your heart.

It cut the broadcast, leaving you with a dark empty screen and stress tightening in your chest. What in the fuck did you just watch. There’s no way it was what you thought you saw. 

_Holy shit... Rev killed Forge…._

You felt your back hit the wall of your shower, not even realizing you had been backing up, your breath hitched from contact with the cold tile.  
It took you a second to really register in your brain what you just saw, staring at the frosted, rippling glass of your shower door.

You turned off the faucet, wrapping a thick towel around you and hurried to the Simulacrum's room, knocking on his door. 

You called for him, hoping this was a dream and that he would just come out of his room and ask you what in the fuck you were talking about, but when there was no answer, your heart fell even deeper into your stomach. Your heart beat was hard in your chest and your breath quick as you pushed open his door, finding it tidied up and almost empty, not like he had much in the first place. 

“Where did you go?” 

You found yourself leaning against his wall, sliding down it to sit on his floor, looking out the window and feeling the cool air of the vent on your face. He still wasn’t here. Why did he leave you? Why did he just run off like that and leave you alone? Tears welled up in your eyes, but you refused to cry right now. Today was much too tiring to cry over something you were too unsure of.

Was it the sex? Did it all just hit him at once, the feelings? He acted like it wasn’t a big deal, but after that second round, the hand holding, his fingers tangled in your own as his hips slapped against your skin, he became distant. He never told you where he was going or if he was coming back.

Fuck, you missed him. You wanted to hear his grumpy voice complain about something stupid or listen to him ramble about weapons or something. You wanted him to embrace you again, tell you that all you’d be thinking about was him.

You needed to sleep. You needed to sleep this off and figure out where to even go from here. It was all too much and after such an exhausting mission, it was best to handle all of this with a clean slate. It’s not that Rev was in any danger, really. You had the comfort of knowing he would be alright, but you were more worried about the consequences of taking out Forge. H e was such a popular icon, looked up to by many and he was murdered so blatantly on camera. Would he be hunted down and captured? Would they look through his memory and find her there? 

Before you dropped into your bed, naked save for a towel, you sent the bastard a message. You needed to at least make an attempt to check on him.  
Hopefully he would give you some peace of mind and respond. 

…

…

…

She waited in her room, toying with the shimmering, gold bracelet on her arm. It was some fun technology that she stole and it made it a hell of a lot easier to do her job, especially in her line of work. In fact, Loba admired all of the beautiful things she had collected over the years, reveled in the glory of being so good at what she does. 

What could she say? She was born to steal, _it was in her blood._

She kicked up her feet, her heel clicking against the elegant wooden desk. It had been a while since she had time to rest and really think about her next move. Everything had been happening so quickly that there wasn’t really time to. She had to be quick on her feet, figure things out as she went along and boy was she good at improvising. She’d had to do that most of her life, even with a fairly nice family.

She knew they did their best to take care of her, they couldn’t change who and what she was and THAT was a criminal. Did that sound bad? Well, yeah, but she could care less. She was good at it and was allowed to be prideful. 

Speaking of being good at her job, she knew where her next mark was. Her good friend, Jaimie had picked up some intel about the Revenant and looked into ways of digging up more info and found connections to THE Crypto. Jaimie figured that if they could convince him, he would tell them where it was or at least hint at it. Lucky for them, he gave them the exact location.  
Factory 36 – Where that damned bastard was; where his head was anyway. 

_Damn Demon._

He was going to pay for everything he took from her that day. Yeah, that’s it, make him suffer as long as she can before finally putting a bullet in that God forsaken source code. 

She owed Jaimie her life for finding it, finding the means to end that monster’s life for good, so she can finally live hers without his shadow on her wall or the scraping of his claws under her bed. 

That “assassin”… 

Who were you and why were you protecting him? Loba could have scoffed at the idea of an unstoppable, killing machine needing any sort of protection that it was almost comical. The anger in your eyes was real, that fiery look that her father had as he ran to Loba, carrying her away from The Revenant. 

She didn’t now how to feel about it, feeling heartbroken over how protective you were or furious that you could even act like you care about something like that.  
They are attached to him somehow…

She thought about how you were ready to fight her, possibly to the death over him. Loba took a second to wonder what in the world happened that had the two of you working so closely together, close enough that the relationship between the two of you was enough to receive an emotional reaction from you. 

Did he save your life? Were you two actually together or were you just insane and thought you were?

She didn’t know. She didn’t want to know. Loba was going to teach you, though. She was going to teach you the pain she felt when he took her parents. She was going to teach You about the beast he really was, although she figured you would blatantly ignore her and side with the Demonio anyway. 

Soon, it won’t matter. 

Jaimie about busted down her door, fumbling with his holo tech.

“Loba! Crypto lied to us. I knew I couldn’t trust him!” 

Crypto lied? 

She didn’t know Crypto all that well to know or care, but Jaimie had connections to him and that was how they started collecting Intel in the first place. Jaimie offered to help her find the head, knowing that he had Crypto’s resources behind him. 

Jaimie stepped into her room, pulling up some info on a hologram that he activated. A large collage of images, red and black surrounded the two of them.

“Look. He told us about the wrong Factory. If you look right here, the source code is being held in Factory 32.” 

Jaimie was right. That hacker gave her the wrong location on purpose, but why…? Why would Crypto have any need to-?

_You._

That slimy little hacker had to have been working with you, otherwise, why in the hell would he bother throwing them off course? He would have nothing to gain from it unless he was working with someone who had something to lose.

“What are we going to do without his-?”

“It doesn’t matter.” 

Loba cut him off, gazing down at her bright, red nails. 

“We know where it really is. That’s all that matters, love. We're going to kill him for sure. Nothing’s going to get in my way.” 

Jaimie was quiet, but nodded in response, putting away his hologram and leaving the room, presumably to get ready. 

She knew how he felt about all of this, how it made her feel, seeing that demon in the images that popped up on that screen. His huge, ugly face staring down at her as if he were daring her to try killing him. Jaimie knew very well how this all affected her. Any normal friend would probably have let it slide, seeing that she was thriving, content without knowing anything about that bastard, but Jaimie wasn’t a normal friend. He had seen his fair share of loss and pain. He had known what it was like to lose family. If there was any chance to kill the monster that murdered her parents, he was damn sure he was going to help her, even if it meant dying in the process. 

She heard rustling in the other room, the clanking of weapons and gear. It seemed he was indeed preparing to go. She should get ready too. They had a Demonio to hunt and the sooner they take care of this, the better. 

…

…

…

Crypto scanned through his computer, checking and double checking security to be sure he wasn’t being traced. It was odd, an itch that nagged at him to check- that something wasn’t right. 

An alert notification popped up on his screen. It was a function that kept tabs on certain subjects or information being accessed. 

The files he had been watching had been opened again and not by his good friend. It was that Loba woman, no, that snake she’s got with her, He never got a name from him, just a call sign. 

He looked into what was found and felt his stomach lurch, just slightly. 

_Damn. They found it._

He typed quickly on his keyboard, trying hard to ignore the crunching sounds coming from Mirage, who was standing near him, eating.

“Damn, these new chips are so good, I mean, do you even eat chips, Crypto? Nah, you probably just eat noodles like always. I never see you eat anything else. You gotta expe-expo-expermen- try new things.” 

Crypto just stared at the sad state of a man, a mouthful of chips and acting like it was the most normal thing to do around someone who appears to be annoyed with you. 

“I don’t just eat noodles.” 

Mirage flinched back, surprised Crypto had even spoken at all since most of this conversation was just talking into his ear, in one and out the other. 

“He speaks! Ya hear that everyone! He spoke to me today! Almost thought we’d have to call Lifeline with how long you spaced out into your computer!” 

Crypto rolled his eyes and went back to his screen, sending you the much needed info to help you on your way to Kings Canyon. 

He sent you the exact location of the factory, not even needing to explain anything, since he saw you immediately opened the file and began to respond. He figured as much. The machine wasn’t with you. From what he found out, he had just left and not responded, also killing Forge while on his break from the apartment. 

You were probably devastated, trying so desperately to keep as man alive that should have been dead a long time ago. He wanted so much to chastise you, but it would be wrong. He was in the same boat, clinging to the idea that his sister may still be alive and out there somewhere, that all he needed to do was find her and save her. It was foolish to think the syndicate would keep her alive just as it was foolish to think she could fix something as broken as that Simulacrum.  
It’s part of human nature to want to help, but here, there’s not much anyone can do to help that thing or whatever it was. 

“Hey, old man, everything okay? Lookin’ a little down, buddy.” 

_An idiot…_

He actually sounded genuinely concerned and it almost made him want to break down and tell the truth about the situation, but he couldn’t. Opening up to anyone about this was a danger to him and everyone around him. He would have to suffer through this alone. 

“It’s nothing. Mind your own business, Witt.” 

He put his hands up in a fake gesture of surrender and backed up a bit, crumpling up the empty chip bag in his other hand.

“If you say so.” 

His body language was screaming that he didn’t care, being the diva that he was, but his eyes said a lot more, that he did want to know, that he wanted to listen to him. It was something he wasn’t used to seeing from people. When people normally asked silly questions like that, it was only as a courtesy and never because they really cared. This group was a strange one. Even though they were just strangers trapped together for these events, they all were like a big family, not necessarily a happy one, but a family nonetheless.

He waited for Elliott to finally walk away before sighing, his fingerprint modifications almost biting into his skin with how hard his fists clenched.

“Fake it til you make it,” Mila would say as she cracked her knuckles before working an all-nighter on some pesky coding. Yeah, that was about right. He had to constantly pretend he was something he wasn’t and act like he wasn’t absolutely miserable.

He was famous. People watched him in awe as he downed his enemies with no hesitation or helping his allies do the same with his “eye in the sky.” No one seemed to know who he was, but still… this nagging, paranoia was tightening his throat with a force much like a physical hand. 

He couldn’t be himself. He couldn’t tell the world his real name to see on merch or signs that his fans held up for him. Everyone that came up to him asking for an autograph, getting a fake signature: Hyeon Kim. He thought about it every time he scratched that fake name onto a book or a poster, how wrong it felt, catching himself slipping, starting the name with a “T” on accident.

Living the dream. Right.

… 

GLACIER: She’s on her way now!?

CRYPTO: Yeah. I’m not aware of when they will make it, but I’ll send updates. 

Glacier: Crypto, I'm scared.

…

He knew that. He only wished he could do something to help.

…

CRYPTO: I’ve sent the exact coordinates. I would hurry. If she makes it first, your robot friend will not have a good time.

GLACIER: Thank you and I know. Please let me know where he is when you can.

…

Not a problem, at least he hoped. 

His fingers danced over the keyboard, watching the screen or any updated over the camera systems and was luck to see Revenant standing inside an old, apartment building that was falling apart. Crypto couldn’t figure out why he was there, and thought to ask, but all of this was too soon for her with the rest of her struggles. 

… 

Crypto: Please be careful.

… 

He didn’t want to make it so obvious that he worried about you, but you being one if his closest friends, it was hard not to. He cared more than he’d like to admit about you and if you were hurt or even killed, he wasn’t sure he’d forgive himself. 

You were heading to here to Solace, to him. It made him happy in a weird way to know you would be so close by. It had been too long since he saw you in person and wouldn’t mind catching up. 

_Heh, maybe a drink at Witt's bar…_

If you made it anyway. He had the tendency of expecting the worst from every situation. It made him a… “Negative Nancy” as With had suggested at one point. 

…

Glacier: K! I’ll be there soon. Keep an eye out for me ;) Good luck on your game. Probably won’t make it in time to watch. 

Crypto: Probably not. If I’m playing, it won’t be a long match.

Glacier: Right XD

…

He chuckled softly to himself at your silly use of emojis. Normally, he’d think of them as immature, but right now, he was happy to know you were still smiling through all of this. 

“Ya coming kid? We got a game to win.” 

Bangalore had walked by with Wraith right behind her. 

“Game’s starting in an hour. They want us in the drop area to prepare.” 

Crypto gathered his few things he took with him to games and followed hot on their tails, down the cold metal hall, and to the elevator. 

He wasn’t sure why, but he had a pretty good feeling about this match.

…

…

…

This was it folks, ride or die. A small amount of gear, your Longbow DMR with the Skull Piercer attachment slung over your shoulder, and an RE45 pistol on your hip, you were ready to move in. 

After Crypto messaged you, a crippling wave of fear crashed over you and no matter what your boss could ever say, you were going to kill that bitch If that’s what it took. Your body would be dead, cold, and in the ground before you would ever allow her to kill that bastard. **YOUR BASTARD.**

You covered yourself with your favorite coat, hoping to not arouse any suspicion when you leave for the taxi, which you knew wasn’t going to be a problem. You were too hot for anyone to say anything about you.

The plan was to take a small ship to Solace and being part of a pretty large organization of assassins, its safe to assume that you have access to transportation. The trip to Solace was going to be no time at all and with your resources, it wouldn’t be hard at all to break into a high security factory full of Revenant bodies. Your hacking skills were… decent and if you slacked, you had your favorite buddy, Tae Joon, to back you up with where ever you fail.

You had your doubts, but with his life on the line, there was no room for failure. Maybe it was selfish of you, but you couldn’t let him die. 

You couldn’t handle losing him.

“I’m comin’ bitch. Better get ready for me, cuz when I get there, _I’m not letting up._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just gonna put on here at the end that I've been having some difficulty paying all of my bills because of this corona business :( 
> 
> My hours have been getting cut. 
> 
> If you guys want to help me out, I can offer commissions and post my ko-fi if you guys are cool with it. 
> 
> Just let me know, cuz I don't want to be _that human_ Ya know? 
> 
> I won't put a link on here unless you guys are interested, cuz I honestly don't like to seem like I'm begging for money. 
> 
> I'm so sorry. 
> 
> Btw, I'm going to be working on a crypto fic next, then starting the next chapter.  
> I've had a bit more motivation to write so I should be quicker than this last update was.
> 
> Edit* adding the link  
> 
> 
> https://ko-fi.com/sniperreyes
> 
> Thank you to anyone taking the time to help!


	12. Shouldn't Be Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back in action, baby.  
> What better way to come back than to be settled with drama and angst over a robot so conflicted, that he isnt sure what he wants. Tune in for just a bit longer. i have a couple more chapters in me and the end is finally near.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, it didnt seem right to walk away from this sweet baby without finishing it, so i've got a few more chapters left in me and an actual thought out ending.   
> i wasnt sure at first if i should even bother continuing, but with the Covid comes the lots of free time.   
> I hope you guys enjoy and i'm excited to finally see this come to an end. i shoud hopefully have it done before February ends.

Fuck. 

What a lovely way to begin our return, though brief… sort of. You were supposed to be cut out for this shit as an assassin, mercenary, super babe, however, not everything goes according to plan. One could site any event that had happened in the past month or more. Don’t ask… you lost track. You aren’t good with keeping up with time, that much has become increasingly apparent. 

It was a long time coming, but it was finally here, everything was finally coming to a head, well… his head. 

It was definitely here, from what you could tell, protected by holo-security light as well as bullet proof glass and an outer metal casing that required clearance. The security was brutal, but clearly, you were capable of getting in and if that was the case, your brand new wolf-friend would definitely be able to sink her claws into this. After all, you knew how the TV shows worked, security is often useless to the “important” good guys and bad guys. 

Your eye through your scope, you watched, knowing that you couldn’t move his head from this spot, but you could damn sure keep her from coming after it again. If you hid well enough, she may be convinced you didn’t make it before she did and boy did you hide well.

You were sure to use a camouflage device so that your tight body suit would match the color of the surrounding area. You felt like a pretty bad ass Chameleon right now and not even the world could stop you from feeling this cool. Well… he might.

He had raced through your mind, his stupid face and that stupid voice plaguing your mind like a disease, one that would always linger forever no matter what, like a fever… Fucking idiot…

As much as you loved him, why in the hell did he hurt you so god damn much? You knew it was hard for him, going through what he did, but you wanted to help. You wanted to be the one thing in his life that he could want to live for. No, it was stupid to think that way. He didn’t need you or need any of this, but you just wanted to try. It was selfish, but you couldn’t bring yourself to give a damn.

Feet… 

Well… heels.

There she was in her cute, fancy getup, looking like a dolled up princess. Her heels clacked on the metal floor as she looked around, clearly horrified at the several Revenant bodies surrounding her. Heh, yeah, he should scare you, bitch….

You readied your shot, waiting to take it, waiting to see what she would do, deciding on pulling the trigger while she stood at the control panel. For now, it was some exciting show, eyes glittering red as she threw the flare into the dark room, lighting up all of the spare bodies with a murderous red, watching her make her way there hips swaying as she walked in her ridiculously tight uniform.

She finally made it to the control panel, summoning Revenant’s head and it was just like before. You felt just as horrified as seeing it in the pictures, anger flooded your veins as you studied the wires and tubes that stuck out of his neck, cringing at the sight of that deathly pale skin. Those people had better be turning in hell for what they did to him. You prayed to whatever deity existed in this universe that they did.  
It was time, centering your crosshair just a little ways above her head, calculating the distance and the drop.

“Say goodnight, gorgeous.”

Right as you pulled the trigger, she moved just enough, screaming about a demon and shooting the bullet proof glass, setting off many alarms and alerting the bots that protected the place. 

Well. That was uneventful. 

The head teleported safely to another factory, while our friend, Loba, looked defeated and pissed at the same time. Sad, but when you don’t control your emotions, rational thinking is fucking impossible. You would know that more than anything.

Her eyes focused on you for just a second, those brows clenched painfully tight, her scowl burning a hole in your face.

So she did notice… of course she fucking noticed a sniper shot zooming past her head, who in the fuck wouldn’t!?

You got up to move, hearing the security bots doing their delightful duty, but you knew they were failing by the sound of guns shooting, deflecting off the machinery and something that sounded like a big, thick, metal stick beating the shit out of them. 

Ooo.

That would be fun to have to deal with later, you thought as you scrambled up on top of some huge metal crates, presumably carrying parts. You kicked back in your new position, knowing she couldn’t do much about your presence with the bots. Lining up another shot, it ricocheted off of her staff and back at you, sparking against the metal crate. It was enough of a distraction that one of the bots managed to pull her off of the platform. 

Good fucking riddance… 

It was a shame. You didn’t like this, but knew that to protect him, this had to be finished. It was unlikely for someone to survive that fall. But you had to be sure, knowing that if she lived, she would continue to haunt him.

Slinging the longbow over your shoulder, you readied your grapple to swing down, but you were interrupted by the factory shaking and a colorful explosion beneath you. The platforms shook, the bars creaked, and hot air blasted upwards, blowing dust and debris unto your face. There was a bomb!? That crazy bitch set a bomb… did she not know where this factory was?

“Holy shit… That’s not fucking good...”

You had to get out. You would fucking die if you stayed, watching the metal reinforcements on the ceiling crumble and fall to the bottom, the Revenant bodies falling around you.

One landed right beside you, those dead, empty eyes gazing lifelessly into your own. It inspired such horror inside of you that you almost stopped breathing. Your new little life that you made with this fucking asshole of a machine, this new adventure that he gave to you… this was the end of it. This was what you feared for so long after hearing about his source code, after hearing about a bitch that wants him dead.

No. you wouldn’t think about that. You wouldn’t do this right now. Pain had to wait, escaping is now.

You found a break in the very top, a crack in the ground and the metal, your grapple catching quite easily and pulling you up away from the flames that consumed everything, even that lifeless corpse of a machine. The explosion was followed by a blast of heat that definitely left burns on your back on your way out, but you couldn’t even comprehend the feeling of your burns when you sat up on your knees, looking up and around at all of the Apex Legends that surrounded you.

They all looked down at you, but said nothing, some with shocked expressions, others with deadpan faces, Watson smiling and playfully kicking her feet where she sat. One thing you for sure noticed was that Crypto was not among them. Ha, probably making out with his drone somewhere, filching supplies while everyone is distracted. He never cared much for big   
spectacles, rather focusing on winning the game.

“It’s you? What in the hell are you doing here, brat?”  
Your heart stopped, your skin pulsed with panic as the metallic voice shook you to your core. 

“Rev…” He looked down at you, his body rigid, but still. 

He wasn’t going to come close. That was fair. A huge explosion just blew up a chunk of the island and the fight was still technically on, so it was better if he stayed put….

But what seeing him here meant… he was at the Apex Arena. He was a part of the Apex games. You were going to make it a fucking mission to question him about why the fuck he was acting as a toy for the same corrupt fuckers that got him put in that skeleton in the first place, the people who severed his head and kept it for a piece of source code!?  
Before you could say anything, their attentions turned. 

That bitch had made it out alive…  
She had appeared on one of the rocks above you, sliding a ring on her wrist. 

Ah, of course. That’s how she did it. You had seen those bad boys before. They were for teleporting! If you had known that, you wouldn’t have made the assumption that she had died in the explosion. Of course she made it out with hardly any smudges on her bright, white uniform. You were almost jealous. You would never be able to keep something that clean.

Your blood pounded in your ears as Rev began to speak, watching him move, eyes raking over his body and his face. You were so happy to see him, but scared to see how things would turn out with the witch standing in the arena. Anything could happen now and you weren’t ready for any of it.

“Come to kill me, little girl?”

Loba spoke, pulling out her weapon and pulling the trigger, aiming true and straight between the eyes, his body falling, landing right beside you with a sharp metal sound, kicking up dirt into your face.

What in the hell just happened?

A shrill screech could be heard. It sure didn’t sound like anyone else… oh right, that’s because it was you. Your mind was blank, your chest empty, yet so full of emotion that all you could do was scream, rubbing the debris from your eyes before grabbing his red cowl and dragging him into your lap. Worn hands cupped his oil covered face, watching the lights in his eyes flicker.

“NO! No, no, no, no! Don’t leave me again! I just found you, you bastard!”

His arm twitched up, sparks shooting out of his other shoulder, and he grabbed you, holding your arm tightly with those same cold fingers. They twitched uncontrollably, something fucked up in his head was causing his body to stop functioning. The whole computer system wasn’t just in his head, but you knew why he was reacting this way. The program was still fighting its urge to think he was human.

“Fuck, Rev! I got you, its gonna… shit… its gonna be okay…”

You had the feeling that he didn’t need your consoling, that he was used to dying so often by now, but it was still so fucking hard for you to accept. This was the body that you had been intimate with, recognizing the scratches, places where the fresh coat of paint had been applied and worn in certain areas. Those lips, those hands… They had once been on you, in a fiery heat of passion and now this shell was dying in your arms.

“Come on, Rev. You got a set of steel balls to live this long with a shot to the head, why don’t you… I don’t know, defy some odds for me?”

That wasn’t happening. He gave your arm one last gentle squeeze before slipping away, landing with a metal “thunk” on his chest, the light finally gone from his eyes. Looking back at you was that lifeless corpse from the factory, those lifeless bodies with empty eyes that shook your dreams with nightmares, squeezed your heart like a serpent.

He would come back, but the pain of seeing him fade, would stay in your mind forever. 

You stood up to go after her, wanting to tackle her to the ground, beat the ever loving daylight out of her for taking him from you, but you were stopped by what you assumed to be Apex security. 

“Fuck you! Get off of me!”

The men seized you, holding you down onto the dusty ground and holo-cuffed you, not even bothering to read you your rights. Worst security ever. 

That was a joke.

“Shut up. You’re an intruder and you need to be questioned. Blisk is gonna have a ball with this one.”

Blisk? You heard the name before, but you couldn’t put a name to a face. It was probably the big bad boss man who owns the games, but you couldn’t quite put a finger on it.

Kicking back at the guard behind you, you flipped over him, trapping your cuffs around his neck and wrapping your legs around his waist. You activated your cloaking for just long enough for one of his buddies to accidently punch him in the kidney, giving you just a second to lash out and kick one in the face, shattering the glass of his helmet.

“That’s quite enough.”

You felt something stick into you and your consciousness faded. 

Damn. That was some good shit. You’d have to look in the market for some next time you couldn’t sleep with all of the regrets.

This is fine.

…

…

“Aagh…” he groaned as he snapped out of his new restraints, a nasty habit to rub his wrists though he knew there wasn’t a need to. He wasn’t sure where he was and the sync to his source code was still connected, still adding more memories and information to dig through as he looked around for any weapons or gear that someone may have so nicely left for him.

Of course not. Why would they leave anything for him anymore? He’s fucking broken now, judging by the fact that he still knew he was a machine and that he wasn’t under the influence of the syndicate anymore. 

Whatever the fuck that glass did to his program, it was permanent. That could be considered a relief, he guessed. If he was going to be trapped in this pitiful excuse for a body, he might as well have control over it.

New memories… new data… and you. You were at the games all scraped up and burnt. The hell were you doing there? Course, he never got to ask you because that little girl put a bullet between his eyes. It never felt so good in his life to finally find someone who wanted him dead so fucking badly. At this rate, he might finally get what he wants. His fingers trembled as he remembered being shot in the head, remembering the warm blood spurting between his eyes, no it wasn’t blood… it was oil… it was oil… fake… 

He was done. 

All of these emotions tormenting him, all of these memories, all of this pain. He wanted it over with. You look at him with those big, hopeful eyes and threaten to give him hope. You threaten to give him a reason to stay, to love you just the way that you want, the way he wants. He cant, though. He cant fucking do that for you. He cant give you what you fucking want.  
He’s a machine, just a machine that’s programmed to kill. Yeah, he’s in there somewhere, but it doesn’t change what he is no matter how human he feels on the inside. He’s a fucking monster and he’s dragged you into his affairs enough already.

A call. A message. A plea. 

She had asked him if he was alright a few days after he had left, asked him if he was safe where he was staying and if he was receiving enough upkeep on his body. She knew he was more than capable of taking care of himself. No, this was simply because she missed him. 

Yeah. 

Yeah, he knew she did. If he was completely honest with himself, he missed her, too. Knowing that it wouldn’t matter, he would return to the games and do his best to keep his distance, no matter how hard that may be. He’d be lying if he said that he hadn’t missed your affections, missed the way your skin felt on the cool tips of his fingers. He missed how you gripped his cowl as he sunk into you, missed the way your nails scraped his back and found purchase on the straps.

You had held him as he slipped out of his previous shell. He remembered your hands on his face, wiping away some of the oil with your thumb, tears running down those dirty cheeks, telling him about his “balls of steel.”

“Heh, heh…” He sighed, looking up at the ceiling of the small facility he was in. 

This was going to be so much harder than he bargained for. What was he supposed to do? Treat you like shit? Tell you off? Make some awful comment, a low blow, to get you pissed off? He knew your past, he knew some weak points that would probably break you, shatter you so that you’d never speak to him again. That would devastate you in ways that would leave scars even long after he’s gone.

He was a monster, but he wasn’t- couldn’t do that to you.

His systems were finally ready to function, finally ready to pull out and open his other applications and as usual, the first one he opens is… You guessed it! A map. It gave the coordinates to the Apex Station where he could reconvene with the others and teach a certain “little girl” some manners.

No guns, no ammo, no gear, no loin cloth. He growled, knowing that the little bastard in the green would have some fun with that.

…

…

“Yeah, he said it was fine, that he wouldn’t make it up. Yeah, he said he didn’t have time for stowaways… don’t even know what they can do… yeah… we'll see about that. I don’t think they’re worth much anyway.”   
You groaned, sitting up in your chair while trying to stretch your sore muscles. They had just strapped you to this metal chair, wrists locked onto the table. Best way to ruin your already bad neck. 

“What do you want, grunt?” 

He clenched his teeth noticeably underneath those tightly pressed lips. Oh, he was mad. Was that the plan? You didn’t remember coming up with a plan for escape, but step one probably wasn’t going to be “make him mad.”

He grabbed you by your hair, slamming you into the table and rubbing your face in an old coffee stain. It was gross, but qt least it smelled pretty good. Could be worse, there’s plenty of shit houses in this fucking ship and you weren’t letting anyone swirl you without getting to write their epitaph first.

“Tell me why you’re here! No one goes through all of that trouble for a little air time.” 

You shrugged under his hold, “You would be surprised by what people would do to meet they’re hero.” 

He gripped your hair tighter, getting closer. His breath smelled worse than the coffee stain. 

“Even getting shot? Don’t think so, shrimp.”   
Oh, he didn’t know you one bit. 

“I’m here, aren’t I? I don’t think I had a single concern about being shot. I believe I even tussled your guys a little bit and all I got was a sedative. Guess you people aren’t fond of shooting civilians in front of a crowd.”

He smirked, holding the pistol to your head.  
“You don’t think they want to see some real blood? You must not know where you are.”

Pushing it, love, pushing it. Let’s dial it back a few, right?

“Right! Right, right, I get it. Lay off, I’m just messing with you.”

He pressed it to your temple one more time before holstering it and letting go of your hair. He sighed dramatically and ran a hand through his lightly sweaty hair. Couldn’t blame him for being all sweaty, it was hot as fuck out here. The weather wasn’t doing you any favors either and you probably smelled like some serious body odor.

“What did you come here for?”

You sighed dramatically, mimicking him for extra angry points.

“I already told you, mister. I came here to see my hero!” you said with all the sarcasm of a person working the ticket counter, hating their life. 

He finally threw a punch, hitting you right in the cheek bone, nothing felt broken, so you’d take it in stride. 

“What about you, what are you doing here? Just getting paid like a good little soldier?”

He raised his fist to hit you again and you flinched, 

“God, okay, okay, I’ll stop! No need to resort to violence!”

“Did you set off the bomb?”

You scowled, “No, that bitch set off the bomb. I just barely got out.”

“What were you doing down there?”

“I’m not telling you shit!”

The guard grabbed your shirt, just about to strike you when the door opened, the fucker dropping you and pulling away. “Sir, how can I help you? Are you sure you are supposed to be up here?”

The table was cold on your face as you looked out the window, ready to hear about what they planned to do with you after acting like an absolute fool to a dumbass security grunt.

“Let (y/n) go. They’re a friend of mine.”

You lied there listening to the guard sputter some nonsense about needing necessary permissions and having to make some calls, but your good friend didn’t seem to give a fuck, hacking the locks on the table and cutting me free. That voice and those incredible hacking capabilities… you could never have guessed it would be…

“Crypto!? Weren’t you in a game!?” he scowled at you, clearly having lost the round otherwise he wouldn’t have been so uptight or have been up here so early.  
You stood up from the table, rubbing your wrists and touching your face, acknowledging the swelling on your cheek. That motherfucker hit you harder than you thought, eye watering. He definitely was planning to beat you until you were black and blue.

“Doesn’t matter. Lets go.”

You moved to follow Crypto out, but stopped when you heard the sounds of more guards. Stress tightened your chest as you wondered whether or not coming here to get you was a good idea, considering that he didn’t have very much authority here. He was just a member of the games, waltzing in here and dragging you out wasn’t going to be this easy, was it?

“Where do you think you’re going? Crypto, the hacker, right?”

Taejoon turned to address them, but didn’t speak, rather listening to their piece instead.

“You aren’t taking this one. We don’t know why they came here. They could be here trying to disrupt the games or steal something of value. I’m sure neither of us wants the trouble of being liable for this… dog.

Dog? 

Your fists clenched in anger as you stepped toward them, Tae grabbing your shoulder to keep you back. That grunt was lucky. You’d show him dog…. When he has his jugular torn from his throat. You lived in a fancy apartment in one of the tallest buildings in the city, this little bitch had no idea who he was calling “dog.”

“It was as (y/n) says. They were here to visit me. Not the best at making an entrance…”

The grunt that was making a pathetic attempt at interrogation looked sort of stunned. It did back up what I was saying about visiting someone, though it didn’t explain why I was there with Loba or my role in the explosion.

Your attention was grabbed by a guard who had a hand near his ear, listening to a communicator. He looked puzzled then stern as he looked straight at you.

“You can go. New orders are to not let her leave the ship, even at dock.”

Well, that was better than being strapped to a chair and beaten. Crypto seemed to agree as he dragged you out of there, leading you down some long, metal hallway. There were some tinted windows cut into them, showing the inside of different rooms, presumably for other passengers or lounges. One room was full of tables and some people were on lunch break. Some of the lights were flickering and you passed a maintenance man who seemed to be working on just that. 

All you had seen of the Apex ship was the outside, having never really looked to deeply into the Apex Games before. You were too busy to watch every game, only making time to watch the games that you knew Tae was going to be in, however, you weren’t the biggest fan. It looked fun, being a blood sport and all, killing being your business, but like most sports, it just wasn’t your shtick. Getting to see back stage of the most popular show in the Outlands wasn’t all that impressive to you, though you knew most other fans would be willing to tear their limb off to be in your shoes. People are insane though. You knew some of those crazy fuckers had to be lining up trying to fuck Revenant. You didn’t need to line up. You were already there.

“What are you doing here?”

He finally speaks! You clap him on the back and bring him into a quick side hug in the hall, not worried about anyone watching. It was so weird actually being able to touch him since you guys were always so far apart. He smelled nicer than last time, probably go get ready for the games so he didn’t smell like a gamer nerd. Last time you saw him he didn’t stink, but he didn’t exactly put cologne on either. You’d have to bug him about it later.

“Came to pay you a visit, remember?” he scowled at you, wanting an actual answer, also wordlessly telling you to quiet down.

“I was in the neighborhood, I thought you were aware of this?” he pulled you to the side, pulling you lower and closer, within kissing distance.

“I knew you were coming, idiot. How did you get here? On this ship?”

That was a long story, one it feels like you just got through explaining. You suppose you could sum it up with, “The factory exploded and it happened to be right under the arena, which you knew about, and they drugged me, throwing me onto the ship. Was that everything?”

He scoffed and continued to an elevator where he swiped his badge, taking you down into the lower floors. Security wasn’t great, but it wasn’t terrible. The only way to get in without a pass would be to force the doors open, which would bring a lot of attention and would be obnoxious. If you were to need to explore, you’d need one of those passes and you were certain it came with video camera verification. Pain. In. the. Ass.

“So where are we going, old friend?”

He didn’t look at you, but smirked. He was happy to see you, there was no way he wasn’t. Knowing Tae, he was just happy to spend time with someone who knew who he really was, someone he didn’t have to hide around. That was probably enough to make him smile so genuinely.

“My room. We need you to lie low until things cool down. The explosion has caused a commotion, one you do not need to be solely blamed for.”

You weren’t sure how hiding in Crypto’s bunk was going to protect you from being blamed for an explosion when the bitch was already talking to important, executive people, no doubt getting the royal treatment. You watched through the glass ceiling as you went down, further into what you assumed to be the legend quarters, the doors opening to reveal a dark hallway with red neon lining the floor and the ceiling.

“That’s a bit flashy, don’t you think?” 

TaeJoon didn’t seem to care as he kept walking towards the end of the hallway, it splitting into two lanes, taking a left. You kept walking, but was stopped when Tae grabbed the strap of your rifle holster. 

“In here. This is where I stay when we are traveling.” 

He let you into his special room, full of tech, lit up neon green, yet shaded enough to look like a suspicious hacker room. It was fitted with a nice, well made bed, a side table with a lamp, a small loveseat, and a huge desk with four monitors. 

“Oh no, Tae…”

He looked concerned, putting his bag down on the table, eyes never leaving you.

“Are we going to have to share a bed?”

And like that, concern was gone, replaced with that minor annoyance that he gave to Mirage while on the field.

“Aw, Tae, don’t be that way!”

He shoved you against the wall, covering your mouth with the palm of his hand. It scared you for a moment, but you knew Tae Joon and he wasn’t one to be pushy without a reason. It didn’t help that you were the one pushing first. He was smirking at you, so whatever it was, it couldn’t be that bad.

“You shouldn’t be saying that name here. I could get caught. If you do say it, say it quieter.”

You put your hands up in mock surrender, prompting him to let go of you.

“Jeez, love, didn’t know you were so worked up. If I had known that, I would have called a friend to help you out.”

He scoffed and sat down at his gamer chair, “nonsense.”

You sat down on his bed, rolling over to face the wall, doing your best to stay off of your back. The burns were still there, believe it, you didn’t forget. Your clothes were still decently singed and would need repair or replacing in general.

“How’s your back? I heard you were hurt when they brought you in.”

You just waved it off. You were a tough bro. Nothing could bring you down except the cold embrace of death and even he has to try to grab you first!

“I’m alright. If they don’t execute me, I’ll have them look at it tomorrow.”

He turned his chair to look at you, “Lifeline should be in her room. I can ask her for help.”

Lifeline? The Lifeline? You held your breath and hoped he was kidding, but when he got up from his chair and open his door, you sat up, panicking slightly.

“Are you alright?”

You bit your lip and nodded, but it didn’t stop you from worrying. 

“I really don’t want to trouble her. Its really alright if I wait til tomorrow. I’m patient, I swear.”

He looked into the hallway and then looked back at you, eyes full of concern. You could tell he really wanted to go get her, but didn’t want to upset you. It was a clear war in his head that you knew your side was going to lose, because you knew he valued your health more than pride and there he went down the hall after his co-worker.

“Damn it!”

You turned over, scared to fucking death. You fucking loved Lifeline. You weren’t a huge fan of the games, but one thing was for sure, you loved seeing her in action whenever it was on. It was the first time you ever felt like seeing a celebrity and Crypto doesn’t count. Tae never felt one as much as he just felt like a friend with a lot of views on Youtube. As you lie trapped in your thoughts, you almost didn’t hear the door open again and this time a second voice at the door.

“Hey there! How are ya feelin’?” 

You could hear her laugh behind you. Fucking Tae must have told her you were shy.

“Ain’t no harm in bein’ a lil’ nervous. Always a pleasure to meet a fan!”

You finally sat up, though hesitant, and met her eyes. They were the kindest, warmest eyes you had ever seen. She patted your shoulder and looked to Crypto.

“So what’ appened to em’?” 

He motioned for you to speak, explain to the professional.

“I-I was in the explosion at the arena today… While escaping, it burned my back. Its really no big deal and I don’t want to be a both-“

“Nonsense, love! I gotcha! Leave it ta me an’ I’ll get ya patched up in no time.”

Tae sat in the loveseat while Lifeline worked, applying ointments, and bandaging the area, explaining the damage and what she was doing, step by step. God, you wished you could have a doctor this good. She was so gentle with you and never gave any attitude. Most of the health workers you went to see had some kind of a complex. They always acted like they were better than you or that you weren’t intelligent enough to comprehend what they were saying. It was nice to finally have someone that treated you with an ounce of respect.

“There ya go. This should make it easier ta sleep at night. By tha way, the name’s Ajay Che! Don be a stanga now, ya hear me?”

You smiled, shaking her hand. She really was as nice as she looked on the screens.

“Thank you so much, Ajay. I owe you one!”

She laughed sweetly and clapped a hand on Tae’s back. “Ya look out for this one, I likem’!”

She put away her supplies, all the while talking about how her squad won the game, telling you about how Octane saved them by getting them to the higher ground and that she saved Octane with her drone and you just watched like an excited schoolgirl.

“I really gotta get ta bed, got an early start tomorrow! Get betta soon, ya hear?”

You stood up to watch her leave, “Yes, ma’am and congratulations on your win today!”

She waved one last time and the doors closed, leaving the room silent. Crypto went back to digging around on his computer and you were able to lie down on your back without issue. Thank the gods for that woman. Now that you weren’t as stressed, you closed your eyes, slipping away into a pleasant sleep.

…

…

You awoke the next morning, Tae Joon no longer here. 

It was early, he probably left to get breakfast or   
something, at least you thought that’s how it worked. They wouldn’t just keep the people on the ship for the game if they weren’t going to feed them. Maybe you should look for this breakfast as well, you thought as you slipped out of bed, still wearing your singed as fuck body suit.

“Maybe he’ll find me some clothes to wear… sheesh…”

There wasn’t a code to get out of the room, just a button you could press and the doors slid open. You hoped you could find Tae to get back in if you needed to since you didn’t have a card to access it. That was fine, though. You figured you’d fair well if everyone was as nice as Ajay was. Wishful thinking of course.

“What in the hell do you think you’re doing here?”

Your breath caught in your throat as he strode over, standing over you with the means to intimidate, but he should know by now that it wont work. Those yellow eyes glowed with a shred of frustration that you could relate to on a cellular level, wondering why he would be acting so stupid.

“I could be asking you the same thing. You’re back earlier than I thought.”

He growled, resisting his urge to grab you.

“I have my ways, but the whys don’t matter. Get out of here. You don’t belong here.”

Really? It had been so long and all he could do was tell you to leave? Bullshit.

“No. We need to talk.”

He shook his head, stepping back since he figured the big, tough guy act wasn’t effective. 

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

Anger bubbled up in your chest. No. He was not going to get out of this., not when you got ghosted after making sweet love on your kitchen counter. No one gets out that easy after that. Nobody!

“So we aren’t going to talk about when you fucked me and then left?”

He froze, looking around the area for any other legends that might be lounging in the quarters. You opened your mouth to speak, complaining about how he was now ashamed to admit that, to which he clapped a hand over your mouth and dragged you away. He was taking you to his room, no doubt, but you were still going to make it difficult on purpose. Serves him right to not have it that easy.   
Ugh, that copper taste filled your mouth, almost as if you had bit your tongue, which you had recently, but not recent enough to still be bleeding.

He tossed you into his room, your body landing unceremoniously on the ground in time with the shutting of the metal door. He crossed his arms, leaning back against the tinted window, either stalling or waiting for you to explain yourself. Didn’t matter which.

“Fucking, rude… First you fuck me, now your abusing me… Feels like a divorce is incoming.”

He scoffed, “Shut up and start telling me something worth hearing.”

“You sound like my uncle.”

He didn’t reply, simply stared deep into your eyes and that unmoving face spoke the loudest words of all. Business.

“Fine. I was here to do a job. I ended up in the factory underneath. My contact wasn’t here, but she was. She caused an explosion and here I am. That’s the truth. I didn’t even know you would be here.”

He didn’t buy that for a second, but he did believe one thing. 

“Yeah, I could tell by that dumbfuck look on your face.”  
Like lightning, he was over you, his hand on your face, squeezing tight.

“I want to know why you were here. That factory was abandoned, confirmed by our newest Legend, the little girl… Wasn’t a job, was it? Its about time you tell me the truth.”

The pads of his fingers dug into your skin, definitely leaving marks, his growl rumbling through his face, sending goosebumps down your arms.

“It was a job! I was sent to find something!”

Gosh you were so good at making it up as you went along. You weren’t going to mention that you knew the source code location. Just play dumb.

“I was sent to find an energy core that was supposedly hidden down there. I didn’t know anything about that bitch being there or whatever she was looking for.”

He seemed to have fallen for your white lie because he let you go, giving you a little space to rub your face.

“Why a sniper rifle? Where’s your core? You weren’t holding anything but a rifle when you came up?”

You weren’t sure how to explain the rifle. He was right that it wouldn’t have been your first choice in a mission of that kind, preferring to keep something of close range so that you can deal with any enemies near you rather than have a weapon only good for range.

“I lost the core in the explosion. It slipped out of my hand when I grappled. I’ve already talked to my boss.”

No, you haven’t. Another thing you would need to do or he would certainly have your head on a silver platter served with a side of cilantro. Revenant didn’t like that answer, but he appeared to be satisfied with it… for now.

“You are an idiot for agreeing to come here. Messing with their shit is a one way ticket to your death.”

Unlikely, since he and Crypto were here. There was also the matter of your boss who would probably dig you out of trouble just so that he could have the honor of killing you, himself. Frederick must be shitting himself right now after seeing you on live screen. 

“I’ll be fine. I’ve made it through worse, remember?”

He was quiet, but that one tilt of his head was all you needed to know about his answer. 

Now that the interrogation was out of the way, it was safe to say that things were a little awkward. There was a huge elephant in the room and it didn’t seem like anyone really wanted to bring it up, less so Revenant. You knew him in a way that no one else did, whether it was mutual feelings or not, you doubted that any human had ever slept with him before you. There had to be some connection from that right? He couldn’t just ghost you without telling you why!

“Rev… I want to…”

He groans and moves to leave the room, but you get up, grabbing him by the strap on his back and pull him back in.

“No! I need to apologize, though I don’t really know what for… I upset you the other day. We need to talk about it.”

His fingers scraped over the door, leaving sharp dents in their wake, no doubt trying to scare you off.

“There’s nothing to talk about. Nothing happened.”

You were standing right in front of him, standing firm against his anger, his fear. You would rather him kill you than budge.

“Yes, something did. You demand the truth from me, but then expect me to be content with your lies? Fuck you! I need to know what I did!”

He looked down as you spoke and fear twisted your gut, he rammed his fist into the metal wall, denting it like he did the door. It didn’t seem like an intimidation tactic this time instead coming off as genuine anger or frustration.

“YOU DIDN’T DO ANYTHING!” 

You flinched, but you didn’t move away from him, trying to comprehend what he meant. You had to have said something… 

“Then… what? Why did you leave me?”

The air was still, the silence filled with raw emotion that spilled from the two of you even though no one made a sound or moved a muscle. His hand had twitched, wanting to reach out for you, your eyes welling up with tears that you would never let fall.

The door slid open and Lifeline didn’t hesitate to push past Rev to get to you. 

“Are ya okay? He didn’t do nuthin to ya did he?”

You looked past Ajay, unable to look away from him, unable to break his gaze.

“We were… we were talking. Everything’s fine, I promise.”

“Yeah! We heard some loud banging and went to inbeste-invetse-inveseb… check it out and- HOLY SMOKES, HE’S IN HERE! Sorry, Ajay, not taking one for the team.”

You didn’t know that Mirage was even there, but he was gone in a blur. Under normal circumstances, you would have been excited to meet a good friend of Tae’s but with Revenant in the room with you, there was little you could think about.

“Why don’ we getchu outta here! Give ya the grand tour!” 

It was probably best that you both have some space after that. It was only fair. And whooo, how could you say no to Ajay when she’s pulling you out of there like a sled.

“That looked like big trouble, ya sure you’re alright?”  
Once you were a decent distance away, you nodded.

“Yeah… it just got… intense. I’m sorry if it caused a commotion.”

She smiled, a gloved hand patting your back, “Is alright, love. Happens to the best of us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully you guys enjoy and of course, Kudos, Comment, anything is great! i love hearing from you guys!   
> also in a new fandom.   
> If you guys like Mortal Kombat, let me know!


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